Killed ... Rodney Elkass.
AN 11-YEAR grudge led to the police shooting of Rodney Elkass, an inquest has heard.
The Sydney handyman was shot and killed by detectives on Pennant Street, Castle Hill, after police received a triple-0 call from a man claiming he had been threatened during a road rage incident.
The call, however, had nothing to do with road rage. It was the culmination of a long feud.
In 2000, Mr Elkass reacted badly to a two-word text message sent by a second-year apprentice at the construction company where Mr Elkass worked, the NSW Coroners Court was told.
The 37-year-old, of Arab heritage, was holding his boss's phone when the words ''Die Koran'' flashed up on the screen.
Mr Elkass became incensed at the insult to his culture.
''He came to the job site I was working on and he hit me from behind,'' the former apprentice, who cannot be named, told the inquest. ''He had no remorse and just kept hitting me.''
Eleven years later, the man, referred to as witness A, and his brother saw Mr Elkass and his nephew in a shopping centre car park.
''I wanted revenge - I wanted to belt him like he belted me,'' the man said. ''I held this grudge for a good 12 [sic] years. Even though I wanted to go back to work, I still wanted my revenge.''
The brothers followed Mr Elkass and his 14-year-old companion out of the car park and pulled up beside his Toyota Hilux at some traffic lights.
''I yelled out 'Rod … you want to go round two?' and he smiled and drove away,'' witness A said.
They continued to follow Mr Elkass along three streets before eventually pulling up behind the Hilux and confronting him. What happened next is a matter of dispute, witness A claiming Mr Elkass pulled out his Glock pistol and pointed it at his brother as the two brothers urged him to get out of the car and face them.
Counsel for the Elkass family suggested that Mr Elkass waved the weapon around but never pointed it, while the brothers taunted him in Arabic, urging him to shoot.
What is known is that the brothers left and called triple-0, reporting the incident not as the outcome of a feud but as a road rage incident with a man they didn't know.
Under cross-examination, witness A admitted that he had lied to the emergency operator by saying Mr Elkass had got out of his ute to confront them with the weapon, which was not the case.
After completing his evidence in chief, witness A apologised to the Elkass family.
''He didn't deserve to die. If he didn't have the firearm, we probably would have had a few punches thrown and that would be that,'' he said.
The inquest continues.
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