Police said Wednesday that a 95-year-old grand-mother Clare Nowland — who was tasered by an Australian Police officer earlier a week earlier — died inside a nursing home after being in critical condition, reported AFP.
Nowland was shot with an electronic gun on May 17 in a confrontation that hit the news world-wide. New South Wales state police said: “It is with great sadness we confirm the passing of 95-year-old Clare Nowland in Cooma tonight,” adding that “she passed away peacefully in hospital surrounded by family and loved ones.”
Earlier some hours, a 33-year-old constable was charged with recklessness, inflicting grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault over the tasering.
The policeman is scheduled to face court on July 5 and has been suspended with pay. Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Nowland’s family had been informed of the “serious charges”, and thanked detectives for working quickly following the “nasty incident”.
Officers had been called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in southern New South Wales by staff who told them that a woman was “armed with a knife”.
Police said: “They urged Nowland to drop a ser-rated steak knife before she moved towards them “at a slow pace” with her walking frame, prompting one officer to fire his taser at her.
The incident has led to calls for a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry and the release of police bodycam video of the confrontation.
“The tasering of Ms Nowland has sparked a community outrage that shows how desperately we need police reform,” state Greens MP Sue Higginson said this week.
“The refusal to release the bodycam footage protects NSW Police from public scrutiny for all the wrong reasons — the NSW community has a right to know exactly what happened when Clare Nowland was tasered so we can start to take the steps needed for change.”—AFP
