The first two police officers on the scene at Al Noor Mosque on March 15 arrived as the offender was leaving.
However, they didn't see him because a bus was blocking their view.
If they had seen him, one of the officers told the coronial inquest they could have pursued him there and then.
It was a terrible moment of bad luck.
The terrorist had just massacred dozens of innocent worshippers and then fled through a nearby intersection immediately after, on the way to his next target.
The very first police officer arrived at the exact same corner at the exact same time.
"I have since seen CCTV footage of the offender's vehicle," the armed offenders squad (AOS) officer said. "The offender runs a red light and the view of this is obscured by a bus going through the intersection."
"By quite unfortunate coincidence a bus was between you and the offender's vehicle as he drove through that intersection," the counsel assisting the Coroner David Boldt said. "So you didn't see him?"
"No, I didn't," the officer responded. He said he would have "100 percent" gone after him straight away if he had seen him.
The trained AOS officer would have arrived earlier, if it wasn't for another car he'd spotted nearby driving erratically - he assessed the driver.
"A male of possibly African descent who was driving and I believed at that point that may have been the offender," he said.
When he established it wasn't, and as the terrorist drove off, he ran to the scene and was the first sworn officer to see the horror at the mosque.
He began calling immediately for ambulances multiple times - asking both police and St John, but it wasn't for nearly half an hour after he first asked that paramedics first entered the mosque.
"When you know there's ambulances down the road and they're not coming, that's quite frustrating," he said. "I would have thought after three times he would be clear in no uncertain terms what we needed."
He was asked if he thought a key St John first responder was in a state of shock at what lay before them.
"I'm not a mind reader, possibly he was shocked," he said. "We are trained for these things but when these things happen your body reacts whatever way it does on the day, so everyone has different responses."
He eventually escorted the first paramedics into the mosque.
"This event was larger than one probably would've pictured for an active armed offender in New Zealand," he said.
An event that caught the attention of the world.
