The tragedy occurred during a stunning attack of dementia. A year and a half after the Taser electrocution death of Clare Nowland, a 95-year-old Australian resident of the Yallambee nursing home in Cooma, New South Wales, a police officer has been found guilty of murder.
The events date back to May 17, 2023. That day, in the middle of a dementia crisis, the nonagenarian began threatening the medical team with a large meat knife. Among the police officers who struggled to contain the situation, one of them, Kristian White, shot Clare Nowland with a Taser gun, who lost consciousness. He died ten days later from his injuries.
Considering the circumstances and age of the victim, the Supreme Court of New South Wales found Kristian White guilty of manslaughter this Wednesday, November 27, report cnn AND the guardian.
A “violent confrontation was imminent”
It was 5 a.m. on May 17, 2023, when Clare Nowland left her room to meet with the nursing home’s medical staff.
In CCTV footage released by the New South Wales Supreme Court, the elderly woman can be seen in the empty hallways of the facility, leaning on her walker and wearing pink pajamas.
Visibly emaciated, the nonagenarian moves slowly and seems to be looking for an interlocutor. A few minutes later, he walked through the door of the caretakers’ office. In his hands: a large kitchen knife.
Unable to deal with the situation alone, the nursing home employees decided to contact the police, who quickly arrived on the scene. A violent exchange then begins between Clare Nowland and Kristian White; An argument that ends in threats from the police officer.
After telling him in vain to put down the knife, Kristian White discharges his Taser. At the trial, the latter explained that he had the impression that the armed elderly woman was going to attack him, that a “violent confrontation was imminent.”
A proportionate use of force?
According to prosecutor Brett Hatfield, Kristian White’s act raises the question: how can such use of force against an elderly woman suffering from dementia be justified?
“This was not a simple violation of the standard of care. It was such an unnecessary and manifestly excessive use of force against Ms. Nowland that it warrants punishment for involuntary manslaughter,” he stated during the hearing, as reported by CNN.
For the Australian magistrate, Clare Nowland was particularly vulnerable and her condition required medical treatment, not a violent confrontation. An opinion shared by Sam Tierney, the lawyer for the deceased elderly woman’s family.
“It will take some time for the family to accept the jury’s confirmation that Clare’s death at the hands of a serving New South Wales police officer was a criminal and unlawful act. The family would like to thank the judge and jury for ” carefully examine the matter,” Sam Tierney confesses to The Guardian.
The day after the incident that claimed the life of Clare Nowland, Kristian White was suspended from the police force.
Source: BFM TV
