"I don't think there's any doubt that if we could turn back time, we would have obviously done things differently," said Chris Minns during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, local time, when asked if there was a shortage of police personnel at the Jewish festival that was targeted.
The authorities are now working to strengthen the security of the Jewish population, in several different ways.
"I can't take back (what happened) last Sunday. No one can. What we can do is get security in order so that we can rebuild our trust with the Jewish population," said Chris Minns.
At the same time, Minns pays tribute to the police officers who neutralized the perpetrators and "saved many, many people's lives."
"The NSW police acted with courage and integrity. They didn't back down and confronted the gunmen," he says.
Police officers shot
Two police officers are being treated in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
They weren't shot in the back as they ran away, they were shot in the front of the body. I'm sorry to be graphic, but if there are any indications that the NSW police failed to live up to their responsibility to the people of this state, they should be rejected because they don't correspond to reality.
An investigation is underway to determine how long it took for the first police patrol to arrive at the scene after the shooting began and what the police's preparations for the incident were.
"We base our police efforts on the threats that exist at that time," said Mal Lanyon, police chief in the state of New South Wales during the same press conference.
No intelligence failure
The police chief also confirms that the two perpetrators traveled to the Philippines just a month before the terrorist attack, according to media reports the purpose was to receive “military training.” During the press conference, Lanyon is asked if the trip triggered any security alerts from the intelligence services.
Not that I'm aware of and I don't think there was any intelligence failure.
