Five years since the death of their son William, Kelvin and Sharon Crews say they still struggle to contain their grief.
"It's been a very hard five years, I’m very emotional,” said Kelvin Crews.
“Bill's death will never be forgotten."
Constable William Crews was killed in September 2010 during a drug raid gone wrong.
He and six fellow officers were trying to arrest known dealer Phillip Nguyen at his apartment in Bankstown, Sydney's west.
But Nguyen, who was high and recently robbed, opened fire when the plain clothes police closed in - thinking he was being burgled again.
Crews was clipped in the arm by Nguyen, but then accidentally shot in the back of the neck by Detective David Roberts.
The 26-year-old died shortly later in hospital.
“This death occurred because of cascading, compounding errors, none of which in isolation directly caused the death”.
Today, the NSW coroner found poor planning and "inadequate intelligence" prior to the raid were to blame.
“This death occurred because of cascading, compounding errors, none of which in isolation directly caused the death,” said State Coroner Michael Barnes.
Those errors included inadequate training, unclear directions prior to the operation, and insufficient intelligence gathering.
“Risk assessment of the operation was informed by inadequate intelligence gathering and reconnaissance...[and that] compromised officer safety,” said Mr Barnes.
“[Commanding officers] did nothing to rein in the unnecessary haste with which the job was being approached.”
While he didn’t hold back against Constable Crews' supervisors, the coroner concluded that NSW Police has since adequately addressed the shortcomings surrounding his death.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione welcomed the findings.
"We are going to take the time to go through them, and we'll take from those recommendations what we need to".
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