Inquest into death of Clare Nowland after Tasering by NSW police aims to answer ‘outstanding questions’

Three years after police fatally Tasered an aged care resident, an inquest could save lives by improving training for first responders dealing with aggressive dementia patients. Then-senior constable Kristian James Samuel White fired his Taser at 95-year-old Clare Nowland after being called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma in southern New South Wales on 17 May 2023. Emergency services arrived after Nowland grabbed two serrated steak knives from the facility’s kitchen and refused to give them up. The 48kg great-grandmother, who had symptoms of dementia, fell and hit her head after being struck by the Taser’s barbs. She did not regain consciousness and died in hospital a week later after a brain bleed. The elderly woman’s death “rocked her family, the local community and the broader NSW community to its core”, counsel assisting Sophie Callan SC said as the inquest started on Wednesday. Nowland was described as an extremely generous woman who carried out charitable work and pursued a range of interests including golfing and travel until her late 80s. “It is our hope this inquest might provide some solace [to Nowland’s family] in answering outstanding questions,” Callan told a court in Queanbeyan. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email State coroner Teresa O’Sullivan will examine systemic issues that existed prior to the Tasering incident and will focus on dementia care and training for aged care staff, police and ambulance officers. …