Australian police allegedly used a taser to subdue a 95-year-old woman with dementia after being called to a care home on Thursday.
The woman, identified as Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother, was reportedly carrying a knife when officers were called to a care home at Cooma in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales.
She “sustained injuries during an interaction with police at an aged care facility”, New South Wales police said in a statement, which made no mention of a Taser being fired.
She is understood to have suffered a fractured skull and brain bleed from falling during the incident, with local media reporting that police struggled to disarm her before using the taser.
Ms Nowland had been a resident of the Yallambee Lodge in Cooma for the past five years.
Shocked community
Andrea Thaler, a spokesman for the Nowland family, said the whole community was shocked.
He claimed that Ms Nowland was shot in the chest with the taser in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“She had dementia that waxes and wanes, she’s good and bad at times,” he added.
“The question will be how it was appropriate to use this level of force on a 95 year-old woman,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
A critical incident team will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, police said.
Snowy Monaro regional council said it “can confirm an incident occurred” at the nursing home, which it runs, adding that staff, residents and family were being supported “during this difficult time”.
Ms Nowland is in a critical condition at Cooma District Hospital.
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