WA police who shot dead Aboriginal woman did not make meaningful attempts to de-escalate, coroner finds

A supporter of a woman referred to as JC speaks to police outside the WA supreme court in 2021, when a police constable was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter after a 2019 shooting in Geraldton. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Police were not sufficiently trained and did not make meaningful attempts to de-escalate the situation before fatally shooting an Aboriginal woman in a Geraldton street in 2019, a Western Australian coroner has found.

The death of the 29-year-old Ngarlawangga Yamatji Martu woman, known as JC for cultural reasons, was preventable, and more needed to be done “to bring about actual change and improve relations as between the WA Police and Aboriginal communities”, the coroner, Ros Fogliani, said in her determination, which was released on Thursday.