Police shot woman eight times as she stabbed her mother to death, court told

A police officer fired eight shots at a woman when she refused to put down a knife during a fatal stabbing attack on her mother, a coroner has been told.

Carly Pirronelli, 26, was shot dead by police on March 8, 2024, after officers were called to her mother Joanne Perry’s home in Melbourne’s north-east suburbs.

A neighbour raised the alarm after hearing Perry, 53, yelling for help and saying, “Please don’t kill me, don’t set me alight.”

Two officers arrived at the Lower Plenty home about 6.40pm and found Pirronelli leaning over her mother, surrounded by a significant amount of blood.

Police ordered Pirronelli to drop the large knife she was using to cut into her mother’s neck, but she continued her attack, the Victorian Coroners Court heard on Monday.

One of the officers fired eight shots at Pirronelli within 21 seconds, the court heard.

The younger woman slumped forward and though ambulance paramedics were called, both women died at the scene.

The circumstances of their deaths and Pirronelli’s behaviour in the lead-up to the attack are being investigated in an inquest, which began on Monday.

Pirronelli’s mental health declined in the months before the attack and she had multiple interactions with police and the hospital system in 2024, Raph Ajzensztat, the counsel assisting the coroner, told the court.

They included a drug-induced psychosis on February 20, 2024, when Pirronelli had to be restrained by paramedics and taken to hospital, which came two days after Perry told a Triple Zero operator that her daughter tried to strangle her.

Pirronelli was also accused of stealing a Toyota HiLux on March 1 that year and evading police on other occasions. The inquest heard that on March 7, 2024, Perry told police her daughter was acting erratically and saying she wanted to kill herself.

The police officers and paramedics who encountered the women in the lead-up to the fatal attack will be among the witnesses to give evidence during the inquest, along with the officer who fired the fatal shots and forensic and psychiatric experts.

The inquest before coroner Paresa Spanos is expected to run for two weeks.