SYDNEY: A 47-year-old woman has tragically lost her life after being tasered by police in New South Wales, marking the second deadly incident involving this weapon in Australia this year.
According to New South Wales Police, the woman allegedly threatened a member of the public and later police officers with an axe before barricading herself in an apartment just after midday local time on Thursday.
Specialized negotiators were summoned to the scene in Stockton, located in the city of Newcastle. Subsequently, after approximately nine hours, officers entered the apartment.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna disclosed on Friday that tactical police units had initially used a bin-bag round to subdue the woman, resulting in a shoulder injury. She was then shot with a taser before being arrested and transported to an ambulance. Tragically, she passed away in the hospital.
McKenna stated, “The post-mortem on the woman will take place in the next couple of days when we will be able to ascertain the cause of death.”
First Police Taser Fatality in Australia
This incident represents the second fatality this year involving an NSW Police taser, occurring only months after a police senior constable faced multiple charges for deploying the immobilizing weapon against a 95-year-old woman.
Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother suffering from dementia, passed away in May, one week after being tasered by senior constable Kristian White. Police were called to Nowland’s care home in the town of Cooma in the early hours of the morning following reports of a resident with a knife.
Police later reported that Nowland was holding a walking frame and a steak knife with a serrated edge that she had acquired from the nursing home’s kitchen area. When she refused to drop the knife, White allegedly deployed his taser, resulting in Nowland falling to the ground and sustaining a head injury.
NSW police guidelines dictate that tasers should only be used on elderly or disabled individuals in “exceptional circumstances.”
