Webdesk:
95-year-old grandmother Clare Nowland, who tasered by an Australian police officer a week ago, died at a nursing home Wednesday.
Nowland shot with an electronic gun on May 17 in a worldwide incident.
“It is with great sadness we confirm the passing of 95-year-old Clare Nowland in Cooma tonight,” stated NSW state police. “She passed away peacefully in hospital surrounded by family and loved ones.”
A 33-year-old policeman charged with carelessness, inflicting severe bodily harm, assault causing actual bodily harm, and common assault for the tasering earlier that day.
The cop suspended with pay and due in court on July 5.
Moreover, Police Commissioner Karen Webb commended investigators for working fast after the “nasty incident”. As well as alerted Nowland’s family of the “serious charges”.
Staff at Yallambee Lodge care home in southern New South Wales called police to report a woman “armed with a knife”.
Police said: “They urged Nowland to drop a serrated steak knife before she moved towards them “at a sluggish pace”. Allegedly with her walking frame, prompting one officer to fire his taser at her.
Police bodycam footage of the confrontation and requests for a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry followed the event.
“The tasering of Ms Nowland has sparked a community outrage that shows how desperately we need police reform,” state Greens MP Sue Higginson stated 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.”
