In a tragedy that has horrified many Australians, a 95-year-old Australian woman passed away on Wednesday, a week after a police officer shot her with a stun gun in a nursing home as she approached him while using a walker and wielding a steak knife.
Dementia patient Clare Nowland was hospitalized in Cooma, New South Wales, after she fell on May 17 after being stunned by officer Kristian White with a stun gun and fractured her skull.
After receiving word that White had been summoned to court on July 5 to face charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, assault causing serious bodily harm, and common assault, the police reported Nowland’s passing hours later.
After her passing, the charges are probably going to get more serious.
A serrated steak knife had been missing from the kitchen, so White and another police officer went to Yallambee Lodge, a Cooma nursing facility that caters to patients with more complex care requirements, such as dementia.
The abuse of an elderly and helpless woman has generated a nationwide discussion regarding the police use of shock weapons in such situations and the skillfulness of aged care employees.
When lives are in danger, police are permitted to deploy stun weapons.
The cause of death will be determined by a coroner. According to the police, her injuries weren’t caused by the Taser-brand stun gun’s electric charge but rather by her falling to the ground.
Since the event, White has been on paid leave while being the subject of an internal police investigation.
Body cameras worn by White and his police colleague that day captured photos of the encounter, but authorities have chosen not to disclose them.
The government that was chosen a year ago is raising funding for the elderly.
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