An Australian police officer has been charged with manslaughter after tasering a 95-year-old woman with dementia.
Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother, died in hospital a week after she was tasered at the nursing home where she lived in May.
Police had been called out to the home in Cooma, New South Wales, by staff who reported a resident was armed with a knife.
A 33-year-old senior constable, Kristian White, is alleged to have tasered Nowland at the home after asking her to drop a steak knife she was holding.
Nowland, who had a walking aid, fell and hit her head, fracturing her skull.
White, who has since been suspended with pay, was initially charged with multiple offenses including recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and assault.
In a statement published online on Wednesday, New South Wales Police said: “Following advice from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad have today laid an additional charge of Manslaughter against a 33-year-old Senior Constable attached to the Monaro Police District.”
Australian journalists reported Mrs Nowland had thrown a knife at staff before police arrived.
Court documents said when White and another officer found her, accompanied by ambulance staff, she was in a room holding one of the knives.
The other officer attempted to grab the knife, but Nowland is said to have moved towards them with her walker.
White then allegedly pulled out and activated his taser, telling the victim: “Clare, stop now, see this, this is a taser, drop it now, drop it, this is your first warning.”
She then raised the hand holding the knife to chest height, according to the court documents, and he struck her with the taser in the chest area, causing her to fall and hit her head, still holding her walker.
Mrs Nowland is said to have weighed under seven stone and was 5ft 2ins tall.
All cops aren’t bastards, but some certainly are.
@Wild Bill — What do you call the cops who aren’t bastards but who tolerate and protect the cops in their midst who ARE bastards?
“A pig is a pig and that’s that.” – The Plasmatics
And that is truly NOTHING compared to the shit they pulled from 2020 onward.
Reminds me of the movie “Freaks” where a legless,armless man is crawling with a knife in his mouth. How is he supposed to use it.
Maybe the cop will have a
“walk a mile in my shoes moment’
when he’s an old, old person.
Kermit, the legless, armless man goes full Black Knight and yells, “Tis but a scratch..”
A 95 year old woman who has to use a walker and had a steak knife and was tasered as a result. When did Australian police officers become such pussies?
You’re seldom in more danger than when police are present.
“…I didn’t know how many it would take, but I knew how many they were going to use…”
– Ron White
@ Wyatt:
Perhaps when they got as fat and lazy as senior constable Kristian White got.
“The other officer attempted to grab the knife, but Nowland is said to have moved towards them with her walker.”
Dude.
If THIS is intimidating to you, you’re in the wrong job and should probably go model tuck underwear or something because you DAMN sure won’t be able to cope with an ACTUAL threat…
“…moved towards them with her walker.”
…did she bare her teeth at him too, or were they still in the jar?
Good Gawd, I’d love to read his testimony as to why THIS made him feel he was in mortal danger, unless the walker had a hemi and spikes on it…
95 years old and 5’2″ and 7 stone (98 pounds) and in a walker and with a steak knife. What is wrong with people?
Look at a pic of the Copper in question.
Donut Product Inspector meets Tacklebery from the Police Academy movies.
Where’s all that ‘de-escalation’ stuff like they have to do when confronted with homicidal, fit gangs of military-age Muslim men just after they kill children and behead women?
Stick the taser in his mouth and squeeze the trigger.
The cop is a close cousin to Chris Krispy Kreme Christy and he can’t handle a 98 pound, 5’2″ woman with a walker? He was showing off what a big man he is.
It’s not necessary to tase any senior citizen. Remember the two cops that tased a 73 yo woman for shoplifting? They were video tapped laughing about it at the station. 2 cops and a clerk all laughed about and bragged about it. They got fired and the woman’s daughter sued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KElPwmwP8co
I have my own ideas about bad cops.
General Malaise
FRIDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2023, 14:15 AT 2:15 PM
“Stick the taser in his mouth and squeeze the trigger.”
…either end will do…
This would have been a different outcome if he did that to my grandmother.
When a good cop doesn’t stop a bad cop, that makes them both bad cops.
If you get a chance, watch/listen to some police depositions. It’s amazing how little so many cops actually know, especially when it comes to civil rights.
A fish rots from the head. If there’s a corrupt chief, 98% of his underlings are also corrupt. It comes down to training, cops need constant training because they get comfortable doing the same thing and covering the same tracks day in and day out. Training has the chance of breaking bad behavior and making cops think rationally.
A cop should feel comfortable calling out bad policing when he sees it, but all too often they cover for each other almost always. The thin blue line gang is what I call it since they operate all too often like gangs.
“Drain the Swamp” should apply doubly to culling all the unfit cops in this country. I know POTUS Trump is all about supporting the police, but there are way too many people in our police departments who have forgotten who it is they are supposed to be protecting and serving.
Lot of ragging on the cops here. Come on y’all,you weren’t there. She had already acted a fool with staff and the cops DID give her lawful order. Instead, she made a threatening move. They didn’t shoot her lethaley for gosh sakes. Lighten up already! Geeeez!
SO the big fat Kristian White was unable to disarm a 95#, diminutive 95 year old WOMAN without tasering……. A lump of shit!
FJB
Since this “cop” is a blob of stupidity, and seemed to believe it was reasonable to escalate the situation, resulting in tragic overkill. Bet the idiot wouldn’t be that brave dealing an Antifa terrorist.
Did any of these idiot cops think of getting behind the elderly woman (a person certain to have limited peripheral vision), securing her frail wrist, which would have caused her to release the knife? Oh no, that would have required forethought not a dimwit overreaction.
Captain Obvious?!?! More like Captain Oblivious.
If you can’t handle a woman with a walker at her age, you can’t handle the recoil of a 9mm which my daughter could at 9ish?.
No Wild Bill, all cops are bastards. If they aren’t actively being corrupt freemasonic scum, they are covering for them. Which makes them ALL bastards.
Well Wyatt, they trained for this dangerous situation by picking up teenage girls by the throat until her feet were dangling, for the crime of not wearing a slave muzzle. There were also training sessions of knocking guys down from behind and riding his head to the concrete. Oh yeah, and surrounding people and forcing the mask on. Fuck the freemason filth. They sleep somewhere…