A very sad thing happened at a care home when a person with memory problems got hurt badly. The person’s name is Clare Nowland, and she is 95 years old and has eight children. The staff at Yallambee Lodge, a care home in southern New South Wales, Australia, found Clare holding a knife. They called the police for help.
The police tried to take the knife away, but something went wrong. They used a device called a taser on Clare not just once, but twice. This made Clare fall down and hit her head, and now her skull is broken, and she might have bleeding inside her brain. It’s a very serious injury, and her family is very sad and worried. They think she might not live much longer.
The police know this is a serious situation, so they started an investigation called a “critical incident.” They want to find out exactly what happened and why Clare got so hurt.
Clare is well-known and loved by many people in her community. In fact, when she turned 80 years old, she did something very adventurous and exciting: she went skydiving over Canberra. But a few years ago, after her husband passed away, she couldn’t take care of herself anymore, so she moved into the care home.
The people who work for the local council are helping the staff, residents, and families at the care home during this very difficult time. They know everyone is feeling sad and upset.
There is also a group that cares about people’s rights and freedoms, called the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties. They want the police to stop using tasers on vulnerable people like Clare. They believe there are better ways for the police to handle situations where people might not cooperate.
In another situation that happened earlier this year, a group called the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission looked at 210 times when the police used force between May 2020 and May 2021 in New South Wales. They found that tasers were used in 16 of those times. The group said that using tasers doesn’t happen very often.
