Photo: 2021 Getty Images / NZ Herald / Greg Bowker
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated drugs were found in Samsudeen's system. This has been corrected to state "no drugs" were found.
A forensic pathologist says some of the gunshots fired at LynnMall attacker Ahamed Samsudeen went through vital organs, leaving him no chance of survival.
The coronial inquest into Samsudeen's death has resumed in Auckland after a break on Monday.
Samsudeen attacked four women and one man with a knife at a Countdown supermarket in Auckland's New Lynn in 2021, before being shot and killed by police.
Forensic pathologist Dr Kilak Kesha conducted the post-mortem on Samsudeen. He found no drugs in his system, but also a small amount of alcohol, likely a by-product of decomposition.
Antidepressants were also detected, he said.
Kesha told the inquest on Tuesday that Samsudeen died quickly from the gunshot wounds. He said four of the wounds would have been rapidly fatal.
"It means that the gunshot wounds hit vital organs, and without immediate medical attention survivability is zero."
Bullets pierced Samsudeen's heart, spleen, intestine and lungs, he said.
"The mechanism of death is exsanguination or blood loss - all of [the bullets] contributed to blood loss, so all of them related to death."
Police counsel Alysha McClintock asked Kesha about the overall impact to a person's body after being hit by as many bullets as Samsudeen was.
"After the autopsy, looking at all the injuries, the survivability is zero," Kesha said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jason McIntosh returned to give evidence before the Coroner later on Tuesday, after speaking at the inquest last week.
He was going over the moment Samsudeen was shot by officer during the attack, while being questioned by Anna Adams, the lead counsel assisting Coroner.
He was cross examined by the lawyer representing two of the police officers involved in the attack, Todd Simmonds, who asked about the exact moment authorities fired on Samsudeen.
"We don't actually know, do we, exactly when shots were taken by my clients, officers A and B," he asked.
"And that's not a criticism of anyone in the room, but that is the case isn't it?"
"That is correct, yes," McIntosh replied.
Simmonds said no one could definitive say when shots were fired, though members of the inquest were trying their best, and using approximations based on the evidence.
"And we're talking, of course as all of us know, about an extremely short time frame of less than two seconds within which officers A and B have discharged their firearms in isle eight on the day."
This was based on audio evidence collected from the day, Simmonds said to Coroner Marcus Elliot.
The inquest continues.
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