What's it like to kill someone in the course of your work? Dave Matthews, a former Western Australian Police officer, had this experience during a domestic dispute he was called to mediate in 1989.
Mr Matthews shot dead a man threatening to kill people with a knife, after the man failed to respond to negotiation.
"It was a really catch-22 situation, killing someone or stopping someone from killing another and then after that threat had passed, trying to save that person," Mr Matthews told SBS's Insight program.
It happened in the space of 90 seconds, and Mr Matthews wasn't prepared for the speed or unexpectedness of it happening in a domestic environment.
"They teach you how to shoot at a target and that's about the extent of it,” he said.
“But they don't let you know what happens after to the … someone once just said when you kill somebody you kill a part of yourself and I think that's very true.”
The incident had a devastating effect on Mr Matthews, who later suffered a breakdown that made him unable to work today.
He was joined on the program by former US chief executioner Jerry Givens, former Australian army officer Joe Day, former Sudan People's Liberation Army soldier Deng Thiak Adut and former Defence psychiatrist Alexander McFarlane.
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