A 95-year-old Australian woman died after police shocked her with a stun gun, prompting public outcry and calls for an investigation into what went wrong.
New South Wales police charged the officer responsible for Clare Nowland’s death with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault, the BBC reported.
The officer, a 33-year-old senior constable whom the Daily Telegraph Australia identified as Kristian White, will remain suspended from duty while the investigation continues and will face trial in early July. Reports remain unclear whether he was suspended with or without pay.
Police said they initially responded to a call on Friday that Nowland, who suffered from dementia, was wandering around the Yallambee Lodge care facility in Cooma while holding a steak knife. When the officers tried to talk her down, she turned and walked “at a slow pace” toward the officers, with the senior constable eventually firing his stun gun at her.
“She had a walking frame, but she had a knife,” New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter said at a news conference after the incident. Local residents and rights activists demanded answers, including a comment on the necessity for such use of force against a woman of such advanced age who was only 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 95 pounds.
“The family are shocked, they’re confused … and the community is outraged,” a family friend told the BBC.
Nowland fell as she convulsed and hit her head, putting her in critical condition, according to reports. She suffered a fractured skull and a serious brain bleed as a result, and she died Wednesday morning.