Beau Lamarre-Condon tells double murder trial shooting of Jesse Baird wasn’t intentional but ‘it was my fault’

Beau Lamarre-Condon “stands by” his decision to shoot Jesse Baird but did not intend to kill him, the NSW supreme court has heard.

The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024.

He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.

Lamarre-Condon continued giving evidence in the double murder trial on Friday, telling the court about the moment he allegedly shot Baird.

“That first shot into Jesse’s right shoulder was the right move. I stand by it,” he said.

He claimed Baird had lunged at him with a knife and told the court he deliberately aimed his gun at the right shoulder, believing it would not kill the other man.

“As police officers we are trained to shoot people at the centre of body mass … I had a split-second moment where I said ‘Drop the knife’ … It was just police mode now,” he said from the witness box.

“If I didn’t do that I was 110% going to have that knife driven into my throat.”

However, he repeatedly told the court he “did not want to kill Jesse”.

“Jesse did not deserve anything like that to happen to him,” he told the court.

“He did nothing to me to deserve to be killed.”

During his second day in the witness box, Lamarre-Condon told the jury he entered Baird’s home on 19 February 2024 because he wanted to retrieve his belongings from the house without being recognised.

He claimed he did not want to come into contact with Baird due to a risk the other man could take out an apprehended violence order against him as Baird had previously asked him to “please refrain from contacting me”.

Lamarre-Condon told the court he had seen what he assumed to be someone’s delivery motorcycle: “As soon as I saw that I had an idea … I saw a hi-vis hooded jacket, waterproof long pants and gloves.

“This moment here … I wish that I didn’t do this … But I had the thought process that if I was to put on this helmet and outfit I could knock on Jesse’s door I would look like an UberEats driver without any verbal interaction with Jesse,” he said.

The accused thought Baird’s room was empty when he entered the home, he told the court.

He searched through some storage boxes in Baird’s home in search of his belongings, including a Cartier ring and a $2,000 shirt, but could not find them, he said.

When he looked up, he saw Baird with a knife and tape sealing boxes and said the other man began yelling, “we’re getting robbed”, the jury heard.

Lamarre-Condon said he was still wearing the motorcycle helmet and his firearm in a holster under his shirt when Baird saw him.

“He started yelling, ‘We’re getting robbed, we’re getting robbed’ … He couldn’t see it was me because the visor was down,” Lamarre-Condon said.

Lamarre-Condon told the court Baird pinned him against a wall with his left forearm while “swinging around the knife” in his other hand as the officer yelled “It’s Beau, calm the fuck down”.

He said he then had a “very, very clear thought”.

“[I thought] shoot him in the shoulder so you don’t kill him, so he drops the knife,” he told the court.

Lamarre-Condon claimed he then fired the gun, but the two continued to struggle and the officer’s finger remained on the trigger, the jury heard.

They tripped over a storage box on the ground, which is when Lamarre-Condon then “accidentally” discharged the gun.

He told the court: “It was my fault … I am guilty of manslaughter … But it wasn’t intentional.”

Under cross-examination from crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, Lamarre-Condon repeated that he “stands by” the decision to take the first shot.

“If I didn’t, Mr Crown, you would be sitting here today interrogating Mr Baird,” he said.

Asked by Hatfield if he shot Baird in the back, Lamarre-Condon said: “that’s not accurate, that’s not true”.

While Lamarre-Condon said Baird’s shooting was his fault, he maintained Davies shot himself.

After the first two shots, the jury heard Lamarre-Condon dialled the emergency hotline to try to get help for Baird.

But when he looked up, he saw Davies, who he didn’t recognise at the time.

The accused claimed the other man had picked up his gun.

“It was pointed towards me at my chest and he said ‘I’m going to fucking shoot you,’” he told the court.

“I started lowering my body towards the ground: I said, ‘Please don’t shoot me, I’m not here to shoot you. I’m not a threat I’m not here to hurt you.’

“That’s when he raised the gun towards my head and said, ‘Fuck off.’”

The former officer said police are trained to redirect gun muzzles when firearms are pointed at them.

“I saw the gun, he was holding it with both hands I thought fuck he’s going to fire the gun and that’s where my police training kicked in,” he told the court.

“My left hand would have grabbed Luke’s left wrist and turned it away … my other hand pushed against the forearm and then I pushed the pivot point of the left wrist away from me.”

Asked by the defence lawyer whether the gun went off, Lamarre-Condon said: “Yes, during this motion. And it got Luke.”

Baird’s mother, Helen, left the courtroom partway through Lamarre-Condon’s evidence.

The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.