This is disgraceful.
A 95 year old woman with dementia was tazered by police because she was not responding to police commands to put down a steak knife she had in her hand.
She fractured her skull when she fell and her family do not believe she will survive, the police constable who deployed the tazer has been suspended
Two officers and care home staff tried to de-escalate the situation, before she began approaching police - "it is fair to say at a slow pace" - and was Tasered.
"She had a walking frame. But she had a knife," he said.
You'd almost think this was an April Fool's Day story, it's that unbelievable.
That officer should face criminal charges for his overapplication of force.
We don't really know the details other than she had a steak knife on her. Feel like the video would need to be seen before crying disgrace.
That didn't take long.
Ah I'm usually on the anti police brutality side tbh! But like without a video and that fact she had a knife , not really gonna cry disgrace. If it was in the US it would go down as suicide by cop.
all they had to do was walk away from her. it isn't like she was running at them. she was not a danger to anybody. i would query why the care staff thought the police were required. they should have been able to de-escalate the situation themselves.
Yeah in fairness your probably right , but if the police were called someone felt threatened before they got there. Just don't think you can say she wasn't a danger to anyone without seeing a video of the incident.
who needs a video. how fast do you think a 95 year old can move with a walker?
Well she did a sky dive not long back haha
The police have said they're not releasing the police bodycam footage but knife or not I don't see how a police officer with 12 years experience would have felt there was an imminent threat to life from a 95 year old woman weighing 43kg shuffling towards him with the aid of a walker
You'd imagine calling police would have the effect of inflaming the situation and perhaps causing more anxiety to this 95-year old with dementia.
What were the police there to do anyway? Arrest her?
Their presence seems pointless.
I would imagine care staff could easily have dealt with the situation from what would have been a frail and weak person, and removing a knife would have been possible given their vast experience dealing with people.
15 years before.
Cases like this won't help public support in giving ordinary Gardai tasers if this is what can happen...
I hope this officer loses his job and is up in court on murder charges, along with his co-officer..
I'm not sure what the situation is in Australia but in this country, many staff employed in nursing homes and healthcare generally are useless, ass covering idiots. "They followed procedure", yeah they probably did but did they engage their brains before calling the police. The care home staff will have been dealing with this person day in, day out and should have been experienced and competent at dealing with all type of dementia behaviours, including aggression, in house. Instead, they call armed police who will have far less experience and are used to dealing with actual violent criminals. Result was fairly predictable.
How do we know she was shuffling along with a walker? Elderly people with dementia sometimes get very agitated and aggressive. You'd be surprised how agile they can be too. A dementia patient with a sharp knife is a more dangerous prospect than you'd think. Having said that, there should've been some way to de-escalate this without resorting to tazering.
How do we know she was shuffling along with a walker?
It says so in the BBC article.
Ah, so it does. I missed that but. But my point still stands, dementia patients can lash out and hurt people.
They certainly can. but they have to reach them first.
In saying that there was a case in the US recently where several cops shot and killed man with no legs because he had a knife.
At most one person could have walked up behind her and gently disarmed her without any issues or real need for violence, they would have been wearing stab vests at minimum in anyway
To be honest, I'm struggling to think of any plausible video in which a 43-kg 95-year-old woman on a zimmer frame, even armed with a steakknife, could appear to present the kind of threat to police officers that could only be met by tasering.
That's cos there isn't any justification at all...
You are probably right in fairness. Although if she's threatening care workers and police with a knife thats not ideal for her or them.
Family friend Andrew Thaler claimed Ms Nowland was struck twice - in the chest and the back - before she fell, suffering a fractured skull and a serious brain bleed.
If they tasered her twice then the police officer(s) have no defense. I can't imagine that she kept shuffling towards them after the first jolt.
In that case the police were equally as wrong. when you only have a hammer everything looks like nail.
I would not fault the care home staff, if they did not want to risk getting stabbed.
They might have assumed that police with stab vests might be more able to disarm the lady in safety.
Of course it isn't ideal but it is a side-effect of dementia and the staff should be trained to de-escalate.
Bang of ageism from some posters about here.
I thought that too when I read it but in the Sydney Morning Herald article linked in post #1 the police did confirm the tazer had been fired only once so I'm struggling to account for how was struck on her chest and back
She was alone in a “small, confined-space” medical treatment room, with the police officers standing in the doorway, when she began to move towards them, he said.
The Taser was discharged once by a male senior constable with 12 years experience.
In what way? she was a 95 year old woman who used a walking frame. how dangerous do you think she is?
I work in a care setting,slightly different as it's not with elderly people.It doesn't happen often but a few times we've had to call the Gards,this has been when in public and a situation has got out of control and the person is a danger to members of the public.
I would question why they felt the need to call the police in a care setting with a 95 year old female service user.My guess is inexperienced staff ,they will be suffering with this for the rest of their lives aswell.
As regards the police themselves there is no excuse,I don't need to see a video,they should be prosecuted.
Tell me, did the co-officer also taze the woman? If not, why would he/she be getting charged for something he/she didn't do?
While it looks bad and is almost certainly an over reaction and poor decision making by the officer who used the tazer, I question why the cops were called in the first place and why the officer actually felt the need to use such force. If there was no justification (and there likely isn't) then the officer should absolutely be brought up on charges.
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