The furious family of a great-grandmother who was tasered by police in a nursing home has confirmed that the 95-year-old is now in ‘end of life care’.
Police rushed to a care home in Australia after they received reports of an elderly person walking around with a knife.
According to 7 News, Clare Nowland – who has dementia – took a steak knife from the kitchen when staff called the police.
When police arrived, they talked to the grandmother and urged her to drop the knife before an officer used his taser.
Nowland fell to the floor and hit her head, fractured her skull, and suffered brain bleeding.
Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter said of the incident: “We can’t talk too much specifically about the incident but generally we say [the Taser] is there as a piece of equipment to defend yourself when you think your life or someone else’s is in danger.”
Cotter also said he could not confirm what the officer was thinking when he saw the elderly woman with the knife.
“At the time she was tasered she was approaching police,” he went on. “It is fair to say at a slow pace. She had a walking frame. But she had a knife. I can’t take it any further as to what was going through anyone’s mind when he used the Taser.”
The incident has left the family traumatized.
Andrew Thaler, who has been in touch with Nowland’s family, said: “I don’t think there’s going to be a recovery. Tasers take out bulls and fully grown men. She’s a slip of a woman.”
Thaler continued: “She had good days and she had bad days, which is standard. This woman couldn’t stand without a walking aid. She’s not that strong. She’s around 43 kilos (95 lbs) and 5ft2in (1.58m). This is an outrage.”
He also said in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning America that Nowland is now on ‘end of life care.’
“A lot of people and some of the family were shocked that she made it through last night, [she is] still hanging on now. She’s on end-of-life care and that’s quite dire,” he said.
“It is outrageous and, it is shocking… That is offset by an enormous outpouring of grief and well wishes and prayers from all around the world.”
“We don’t have those answers and that’s partly why I’m helping to speak out, because that is an answer that everybody wants.”
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