This image of the stolen SUV and damaged police cruiser was released at the inquest. (New Westminster Police)

The New Westminster police officer who shot and killed a teenager who was in a stolen SUV testified at a coroner's inquest in Burnaby on Tuesday.

Const. Todd Sweet killed Kyle Tait, 16, in August 2005 at the end of a police pursuit. Tait was a passenger in the vehicle, which police said had tried to ram a police car. A police investigation found no criminal wrongdoing by Sweet in Tait's shooting.

Sweet — an 18-year veteran of the police force, a firearms instructor and former member of the emergency response team — testified that he and his partner were following the SUV in their cruiser when it turned onto a dead-end street.

Sweet managed to block the SUV with his vehicle, but the driver rammed the cruiser twice, Sweet testified.

New Westminster police Const. Todd Sweet arrives at the Burnaby courthouse on Tuesday. (CBC)

Fearing for the life of his partner, who was somewhere on the vulnerable side of the car, Sweet then yelled at the driver to stop and then opened fire to prevent a third ramming, he testified.

The SUV stopped and Sweet then ran over and opened the door to arrest the driver.

"That was the first time I realized anyone else was inside the vehicle. I heard screaming," Sweet said.

There were five teenagers in the vehicle, including 16-year-old Tait, who was killed by one of Sweet's bullets.

But Sweet's testimony appeared to contradict that of an earlier witness, Silvano Baldiserra, a Burnaby resident who heard the crash and gunshots from his nearby home.

Kyle Tait's mother, Noel, right, talks to reporters outside the courthouse on Tuesday. (CBC)

Baldiserra testified he heard only one crash, and then "Bang, bang, bang," and told the inquest, "He shoot the wrong guy."

Tait's mother, Noel Tait, held a picture of her son as she sat and listened to the testimony in the Metrotown courtroom on Tuesday.

"I hold a picture of my son Kyle so he's here with me," she said outside the courtroom before the inquest began.

But in the end, the testimony was all too much for her, and at one point, she fled from the courtroom and collapsed outside, sobbing.

The inquest began in March but was adjourned after Cameron Ward, the lawyer for Tait's family, filed a last-minute bid for records looking into Sweet's past.

The request came after it was revealed that at the time of the shooting, Sweet was being investigated by Abbotsford police in another police chase he had been involved in two months earlier.

In that case, Sweet eventually pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm for kicking a handcuffed suspect in the head and was given a suspended sentence.

Sweet was asked Tuesday about the earlier incident. He responded that was it a momentary lapse in judgment, saying "We're trained, but we're human."

Sweet is expect to testify further on Wednesday.