Foreign Affairs

Australia, police use the taser on a 95-year-old woman: she is in very serious condition

The woman was in a nursing home: she walked with a walker and brandished a knife. The country's community in shock

19/05/2023

A 95-year-old Australian suffering from dementia and forced to walk with a walker was hit with a taser by the police in the nursing home where she lived because she brandished a knife: the elderly woman, reports the BBC, fell and was hospitalized with a severe cerebral hemorrhage. The news shocked the community of Cooma, a town in the state of New South Wales, and sparked protests by the population against the police. Officers arrived at the facility, Yallambee Lodge, on Wednesday morning following a report that the woman - Clare Nowland - was "armed" with a knife, Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Cotter told the media today. Officers and nursing home staff tried to defuse the situation, before the woman began to approach the police - "it's fair to say at a slow pace", Cotter specified - and was hit with the taser. "He had a walker. But he had a knife," he added.

The New South Wales Police Chief said he shared the community's concerns, saying an investigation had been opened. According to a family friend, Andrew Thaler, the elderly woman was shot twice - in the chest and back - before falling, suffering a skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. "His family is already grieving because they don't expect him to survive," Thaler told the BBC. "The family is shocked, confused... and the community is outraged," he added: "How can this happen? How do you explain this level of strength? It's absurd." The officer involved has not been suspended, but will be questioned as part of the investigation, which will also involve the homicide squad.