ONE of the state’s top cops has defended the two police officers who shot at a knife-wielding man at Hornsby Westfield yesterday but injured three innocent shoppers in the process.

Police have launched a critical incident investigation into the shooting.

It will be carried out by the Parramatta Local Area Command.

One of the issues to be investigated will be why a Taser or other options available were not used by the officers.

Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said the male and female officers were in a life and death situation when psychiatric patient Jerry Sourian ran at them armed with a large carving knife. He said Sourian was known to police.

“The officers have fired shots at the offender, he was wounded several times —­ ­unfortunately some bystanders were also injured with other bullet or fragment wounds,” Mr Clifford said.

“If a Taser was available a decision was made by those officers in a life and death situation.

Police on Hornsby shooting Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford addresses the media after the shooting at Westfield Hornsby

“This occurred in a matter of seconds ... there was a matter of metres in it in the confined space of a shopping mall.”

Mr Clifford said using firearms in a situation like this was one of the options that was available to officers.

“There is a range of tactical options available to police in any situation,” he said.

“You can’t dictate exactly what option to use in every ­circumstance.

“The officers have made a decision, but we do know they were dealing with a person with a rather large knife who came at the ­officers and they made that ­decision to use their weapons.

“There was a Taser available as were other options like spray and batons.”

Mr Clifford conceded it was “alarming” that the bystanders had been hit.

“I wonder what may have happened if police had not intervened and stopped this person with the knife,” he said.

Scott Weber from the Police Association of NSW said they “fully support these two brave ­officers. It just highlights the ­nature of policing that at any given time a life-threatening ­situation can occur,” he said.

Stephen Blanks, the president of the NSW Council of Civil ­Liberties, said an independent ­review was crucial.

“Serious incidents like this where members of the public are injured as a result of the use of police guns require the most thorough investigation because public confidence depends upon knowing they did not do the wrong thing,” Mr Blanks said.

“The public needs to know that police have been properly trained in dealing with people with mental health issues and that they use their guns as a last resort when lives are threatened.”

Mr Clifford said the review would be independent.

This comes as NSW Health said it will be conducting a review into how Mr Sourian — an inpatient of the Hornsby Adult Mental Health Unit — was able to escape the premises after being “provided a very short period of supervised leave”.

“The patient was released to the care of family members and allowed access to the grounds of

the health facility,” NSW Health said in a statement.

“Shortly after starting that leave, the patient absconded. Staff at the facility were informed, and Hornsby police were contacted shortly after.”

Witness Raquel Redmond questioned whether the police “overreacted”.

Steve Middleton, who runs the Brasserie Bread stall, saw a male and female police officer draw their guns and fire when the knife-wielding man ran at them.

Mr Middleton said the attacker didn’t say anything but was he waving a large knife at the officers.

“He just had a little smile on his face, no shoes, tracksuit pants, baggy jumper,” he said.

Magdy Abdalla from the Java Lava Cafe on Florence St said he heard gunshots and immediately fell to the floor.

“I saw some people running and I just had a look,” he said. “I found three older ladies on the floor bleeding, one injured in the leg, one in the arm and the other one maybe in the back.”

Police have confirmed nobody was stabbed in the incident, ­despite earlier reports.

All four injuries were as a ­result of gunfire.

Last night all the injured ­remained in stable conditions in hospital.

The offender remains in ­hospital under police guard.

Yesterday’s shooting at ­Westfield Hornsby occurred just metres from a restaurant that was the scene of a stabbing in March. One man died and a woman was seriously injured in that incident.

HALF OF ALL POLICE SHOOTINGS IN NSW INVOLVE MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE

Bruce McDougall

MORE than 100 people have been shot dead by Australian police over the past 25 years — and almost half of them were found to be mentally ill.

In January this year a two-year-old boy saw police shoot dead a man who had threatened officers with a knife at a police station in Sydney’s northwest.

In March last year a knife-wielding man died after being shot by police who were called to a domestic incident at a house at Ettalong on the Central Coast.

The man allegedly became aggressive and was shot once in the chest by a senior constable after attempts to subdue him failed.

That shooting came less than a month after police killed a 22-year-old woman in Western Sydney.

Courtney Topic, who had Asperger’s syndrome, was shot outside a Hungry Jack’s restaurant at West Hoxton after officers failed to subdue her with ­capsicum spray or a Taser.

In April last year police shot a 20-year-old man armed with a knife in Gosford.

Among the most dramatic confrontations was the killing of French photographer Ron Levi who was shot by police as he brandished a knife on Bondi Beach in 1997. A coronial inquest into Mr Levi’s death was told that he was suffering from a ­psychiatric illness “at and ­immediately before his death”.

The man whom police shot yesterday in Hornsby had ­escaped from a psychiatric facility a few weeks ago.

ONE-DAY WORKSHOP ON MENTAL ILLNESS IS ALL THE TRAINING OUR POLICE OFFICERS GET

Ashleigh Gleeson

POLICE receive just one day of training to deal with cases involving mental health patients.

And NSW police yesterday refused to confirm whether the officers involved in the Hornsby shooting had even received this.

Mental health experts have questioned whether the one-day workshop was adequate considering as much as 40 per cent of the police workload involved dealing with those affected by mental illness.

The training was launched in 2014 to help the state’s officers deal with the “exponential growth” of mental health-related incidents. It was being rolled out to more than 13,000 general officers over two years.

Mental Health Carers NSW chief executive Jonathan Harms told The Daily Telegraph more needed to be done to prepare general police officers to deal with such complex cases.

“Given this is core business for police we believe this training is a baby step and we really need much more mental health capacity attached to the police force.”

Police Association of NSW spokesman Scott Weber said the mental health training was “really comprehensive” and a “world leader”. He said officers who made up the specialised mental health intervention team undertook a four-day course.

A police spokeswoman yesterday would not answer questions on whether the one-day mental health workshop had been fully rolled out or if the officers involved in yesterday’s shooting had received it.

She said that would form part of the critical incident investigation.

In 2013, the NSW police responded to more than 42,000 mental health related incidents.