Senior police concede seeing an officer taser a frail, 95-year-old great-grandmother using a walking frame in a NSW aged care facility is “confronting”, as outrage grows over the incident.
Clare Nowland is receiving end-of-life care in Cooma District Hospital surrounded by her distraught family after she was critically injured when tasered by a senior constable on Wednesday morning.
She is reportedly “in and out of consciousness”.
Staff at the Yallambee Lodge nursing home called police after Mrs Nowland, who has dementia, weighs 43 kilograms and uses a walking frame, took a serrated steak knife from the kitchen into a small treatment room.
Police and ambulance officers tried to get Mrs Nowland to drop the knife before the senior constable fired his taser once as she approached them, Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter said on Friday.
“At the time she was tasered she was approaching police. It is fair to say at a slow pace. She had a walking frame,” he said.
“She did have a knife in her hand and it is fair to say that she was armed with that knife.”
Mrs Nowland fell, suffering serious injuries when her head struck the floor.
“This is a very live and very serious investigation, which the homicide squad is investigating, and in the rights of everyone involved, the investigation process has to carry on,” Mr Cotter said.
“We can’t talk too much specifically about the incident but generally we say [the taser] is there as a piece of equipment to defend yourself when you think your life or someone else’s is in danger.”
He said the homicide squad’s independent review would be followed by a review by the NSW Police force’s professional standards command. It will include oversight by the law enforcement conduct commissions of NSW.
The officer who fired the electric shock weapon joined the force 12 years ago. Since Wednesday’s incident, he has been taken off active duty but has not been stood down.
The critical incident investigation has been elevated to “level one” because of Mrs Nowland suffering an injury that could lead to her death.
Mr Cotter declined to say whether the officer might face criminal charges, saying it would breach procedural fairness.
“No officer, not one of us, is above the law and all our actions will be scrutinised robustly, from a criminal perspective as well as a departmental perspective,” he said.
“I am not the investigator, I’m not in the position to talk about whether this officer will or will not face criminal charges.”
Mr Cotter said he had seen the body camera footage from Wednesday’s confrontation and agreed with a family friend it was “confronting”. He has declined to release it publicly.
Before the incident, Mrs Nowland had been walking around the nursing home for several hours. Ambulance officers arrived before police, who were off duty and had to be called to the nursing home.
Family friend and community advocate Andrew Thaler called on NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb to meet the family in person to help them understand what happened.
He questioned what threat could have been posed by Mrs Nowland, who is just 155 centimetres tall, and whether the presence of police escalated the situation.
“To allege she was brandishing a knife is the most absurd thing … was she making toast, was she hungry? I think it’s a lie,” he said.
“The police should never have been called.”
Police guidelines say an officer can use a stun gun when violent resistance is occurring or imminent, or when an officer is in danger of being overpowered.
Since the incident on Wednesday, senior police had been engaging with the family who are at Mrs Nowland’s bedside, Mr Cotter said.
“We feel for all her family. We have been in contact on the ground there at Cooma,” he said.
Police initially described the incident as “an interaction” between officers and Mrs Nowland. On Friday, however, Ms Webb stressed the force understood the gravity of the situation.
NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Josh Pallas said police should not use Tasers on vulnerable people who were experiencing dementia or a mental health crisis.
The incident was a tragic example of the need for healthcare workers to receive compulsory dementia care training, Dementia Australia said on Friday.
“We have received calls and emails from people living with dementia, their families and carers expressing their anger and sadness for Ms Nowland and her family.”
The Snowy Monaro Regional Council, which runs Yallambee Lodge, said staff had followed procedure and support was being provided to them and residents.
-with AAP
