The commander who ordered police to storm the Lindt cafe says it will never be known whether earlier action could have saved the lives of hostages and has denied officers were waiting until someone died before acting.
The forward commander, who can't be named, has also accepted responsibility for the deaths of hostages Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson and gunman Man Haron Monis, telling the NSW coroner he thinks daily about the events of December 15 and 16, 2014.
But, he added, he's still unsure about what he could have done differently.
The detective chief inspector took command about 10pm on the night of the siege and throughout his time in charge he could not discount the possibility that Monis had a bomb in his backpack, he said.
He thought all hostages, tactical officers and Monis would be killed if it was exploded in response to police action.
The commander's worry about the bomb, balanced against operational guidelines, stopped him from sending police in, the inquest heard.
But when questioned by counsel assisting the inquest Jeremy Gormley SC as to whether the siege was managed on the basis police would not go in until it was clear someone had died, the commander said he "did not accept" that proposition.
That appeared to contradict an answer he had earlier given to NSW Coroner Michael Barnes.
Mr Barnes interrupted questions to clarify the commander's position, asking: "because of the risk of the bomb you were never going to go in until someone was killed."
The commander said he "accepted" that.
The commander began giving evidence on Monday and has been grilled by the Johnson family's lawyer, Gabrielle Bashir SC, throughout Wednesday.
She asked several times whether Mr Johnson may still be alive if police had entered the building at 2.03am, when a shot was fired by Monis over the heads of a group of escaping hostages.
The commander, however, said he couldn't answer with clarity.
But he did tell the inquest that the siege plays on his mind every day.
"I lost three people that night," he said.
"The buck stops with me. I accept that.
"I reflect on this every day but I don't know what I could have changed."
On Tuesday, Mr Johnson's mother Rosie and father Ken bolted from the inquest when the commander described the events around the siege as "high-stakes games".
Mr Johnson was forced to his knees at gunpoint and murdered with a close-range shotgun blast in the early hours of December 16, 2014.
Soon after the commander ordered tactical police to enter.
He was expecting the worst and shut his eyes, waiting for an explosion and shockwave.
"I was sending those police in to die at 2.13," he said.
In the 10 minutes between the shot being fired above the escaping witness and the storming of the cafe "very minimal" information was coming to the commander, he told the inquest.
The inquest continues.
