Great-grandmother dies a week after police Tasered her at nursing home

Clare Nowland - ABC News

Clare Nowland – ABC News

A 95-year-old great-grandmother died on Wednesday a week after being Tasered by a police officer inside her Australian nursing home, police said.

Clare Nowland passed away “peacefully” in hospital surrounded by family and loved ones, New South Wales state police said in a statement.

Ms Nowland had 24 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren, police said.

Clare Nowland - Australian Broadcasting Corp

Clare Nowland – Australian Broadcasting Corp

Hours earlier, a 33-year-old senior constable was charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault in relation to the incident.

The officer, who has been suspended with pay, will appear before court on July 5.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Ms Nowland’s family had been informed of the “serious charges”, and thanked detectives for working quickly following the “nasty incident”.

Officers had been called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in southern New South Wales by staff who told them that a woman was “armed with a knife”.

Bodycam video

Police say they urged Ms Nowland to drop a serrated steak knife before she moved towards them “at a slow pace” with her walking frame, prompting one officer to fire his Taser at her.

The incident has led to calls for a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry and the release of police bodycam video of the confrontation.

Community outrage

Sue Higginson, a state Greens MP, said: “The Tasering of Ms Nowland has sparked a community outrage that shows how desperately we need police reform.”

“The refusal to release the bodycam footage protects NSW Police from public scrutiny for all the wrong reasons – the NSW community has a right to know exactly what happened when Clare Nowland was tasered so we can start to take the steps needed for change.”

Police have said they do not plan to release police body-worn video of the tasering.

“We don’t intend to release it unless there is a process at the end of this that would allow it to be released,” the state police commissioner said.

Ms Webb said at the time she had only heard the audio from the recording: “I don’t see it necessary that I actually view it.”

She added that police may need to be “better equipped” to deal with dementia patients.

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