A member of a specialist armed police squad believes faster and better equipped vehicles would not have made a difference in efforts to stop the Bourke Street driver.
An inquest has been told the Victoria Police critical incident response team was in a position to stop James Gargasoulas multiple times in the hours before his deadly CBD rampage, where he mowed down and killed six pedestrians on January 20, 2017.
In the aftermath, team members complained they could have stopped the offender if not for their slow, clunky and ill-equipped vehicles.
But on Monday, team member Senior Constable David Cavanagh, said he did not believe more adequate vehicles would have made a difference in efforts to intercept the offender "because we couldn't get to him".
"It wouldn't have changed a thing," he said about attempts by multiple police units to catch Gargasoulas before he went to the CBD and rammed pedestrians.
The officer's testimony came after an issues paper, written by the critical incident response team after the tragedy, was presented to the inquest last week.
The paper expressed "sheer frustration" at the inadequacy of their vehicles.
The paper, signed by CIRT team members involved in the incident, complained their VW vans limited their ability to attend critical incidents swiftly.
"(They are) grossly ill equipped, slow, overweight, unsuitable, unstable, limited capacity, irrelevant, under performing, poor handling and an unsafe vehicle to be used on the road as a tactical response," the document said.
"CIRT could have intercepted and arrested the offender using vehicle intercept techniques hours earlier, before the offender entered Bourke Street.
"That is, the offender would've been stopped well before he committed multiple murders if CIRT were equipped with 4WD vehicles and had been authorised to do so."
One CIRT member complained he was unable to keep pace with the offender as he chased him down Bourke Street.
Meanwhile, a police sergeant on Monday said she felt "blindsided" and feeling like she was "pulling teeth" as she tried to obtain information about Gargasoulas once he entered his western suburbs patch almost two hours before the deadly city spree.
Sergeant Shannon Grant said the first report she had over police radio was that the offender was an erratic driver.
"There was a lot of information that was never provided to me that I would've loved to have known," she told the inquest.
Sgt Grant, who was the incident controller when the suspect was as in her area, said she was frustrated about the lack of information, such as danger to the general public, as he drove into her area.
That afternoon, Gargasoulas drove onto city footpaths mowing down pedestrians, killing six and injuring 27 others.
He was jailed in February for at least 46 years.
The inquest continues on Tuesday.
Australian Associated Press
