ROBERTO Laudisio Curti screamed for help as police tasered the writhing Brazilian student while six officers held him on the ground, an inquest heard this morning.

A witness to the incident, Tommy Wang, told Glebe Coroner's Court he heard multiple "zapping sounds" and saw one female officer kick the 21-year-old after he was tackled to the ground.



"There was a lot of screaming and I did hear him saying help," he said.

Curti's family approved the release of distressing CCTV footage showing the student's final moments as he lay writhing in pain on the ground.

"We understand that the media may broadcast the video from a Taser gun at the scene. This vision is incredibly distressing to the family," the family said.

"But we believe it is very important that the public see Beto's final moments and see how he was treated by the police after being tasered, handcuffed and sprayed with capsicum. Only through honesty and transparency will we get to the truth of what happened, why and who is responsible"



Mr Curti died on March 18 after he was repeatedly tasered and capsicum sprayed following an early-morning police chase through the streets of the Sydney CBD.



Police tried to taser him 14 times and he was subjected to multiple "drive stuns" - where the weapon is used directly on the victim - as police tried to subdue him on the ground, the inquest was told.



Mr Wang told the court he didn't think the police actions were appropriate - with six officers holding Mr Curti down even though he clearly couldn't get away.



"When I first saw him he was topless and had nothing in his hand, he wasn't attacking the police back, he was just trying to run away," he said.



Mr Curti had earlier stolen two packets of biscuits from a King St convenience store, where he told a shop attendant he was a "messenger from God".



The 21-year-old, who appeared to be in a "psychotic state", had shared a single tab of LSD with two friends during a night out in the city.



Another witness, Wendy Price, said she heard Mr Curti yelling "like a wild animal" as he wrestled to escape police when they first confronted him in the street.



"As (police) were struggling to restrain him, I saw a flash which he seemed to react violently to," she said.



"He writhed and twisted and managed to break free."

The inquest this afternoon heard one of the police supervisors on duty that night continued to refer to the convenience-store incident as an "armed robbery" in radio broadcasts - despite three references to Mr Curti having no weapons.



Acting Sergeant Craig Partridge, who was monitoring the situation from the City Central police command, said he didn't hear clarifications that the 21-year-old was unarmed after the call initially came through as an armed robbery.



"(The incident) was in my mind, but not foremost in my mind," he said.



Sgt Partridge initially said officers wouldn't have responded to the call any differently if they were told Mr Curti wasn't carrying a weapon.



But under cross-examination from Peter Hamill SC, for Mr Curti's family, he admitted it was important for police on the ground to know if the suspect was a threat.



"You now know what poor Roberto did, don't you?" Mr Hamill asked.



"He acted a bit strange and a bit crazy and he took some biscuits - that's a qualitative difference between someone who goes into a bank with a submachine gun."



Sgt Partridge replied: "There would be a difference, yes. But those officers acted how they thought was appropriate at the time."



The inquest continues today.

Roberto 'heard messages from God'

Yesterday, the final hours of the 21-year-old's life were catalogued in graphic detail in Glebe Coroner's Court, which was told officers tried to taser the Sao Paulo native 14 times as he was chased through the city early on March 18.

Mr Curti, known as "Beto" to his family, died just after 6am, 10 minutes after a Taser hit him in the back and he crashed to the ground.

Earlier he had stolen two packets of biscuits from a King St convenience store, where he jumped the counter and told a staff member: "I'm a messenger from God" and "the world will end".

Up to 11 officers eventually swarmed on the semi-naked man, who shed his shirt, shoes and underwear as he wandered the city.

Police said Mr Curti showed "super-human strength" as they tried to subdue him - using repeated "drive stuns" with their weapons as well as capsicum spray and batons before he was handcuffed.

In his opening address, counsel assisting the coroner Jeremy Gormly SC said it was not clear what caused Mr Curti's death, but he may have choked from how he was being held on the ground.

He said it appeared the stun technique - where the Taser is applied directly on the victim's body - was used seven times as police tried to restrain him and one probationary constable alone fired five bursts under encouragement from another officer.

"The precise purpose of drive stunning Mr Curti is not immediately apparent ... it is difficult to imagine that localised pain would subdue (him)," Mr Gormly said.

Several members of Mr Curti's family left the courtroom while graphic footage of the minutes leading up to his death - including vision of the Taser which felled him - was played.

He was seen writhing on the ground with several officers on top of him. One of whom yelled: "Stay down, stay down, stop resisting or you will be tasered again."

The previous evening Mr Curti and two friends shared a single tab of LSD.

By early the next morning his behaviour had become erratic and at 4.31am he made an "exceptionally uncharacteristic" call to his sister Ana Luisa Laudisio, who he was staying with in Sydney.

"Why do you want to kill me?" he asked her.

Mr Gormly said the 21-year-old was "speaking with fear" and his behaviour that night was completely out of character. "It (was) probably the product of an erratic, drug-induced psychotic state," he said.

The inquest will examine whether the force police applied during the incident was appropriate and if they followed guidelines for Taser use.