Paramedic felt ‘shock and disbelief’ when Clare Nowland shot by NSW police Taser, inquest hears | New South Wales
A paramedic relived his disbelief as he watched a police officer fatally shock a 95-year-old woman with dementia.
Then-senior police officer Kristian James Samuel White fired his gun at Clare Nowland after being called to the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma, southern New South Wales, on May 17, 2023.
Intensive care paramedic Anna Hofner was present at the time and told an inquest on Wednesday she felt “absolute shock and disbelief” when the stun gun was fired.
“I didn’t think the use of the Taser was proportionate to the magnitude of the incident… it seemed excessive,” he told the Queanbeyan coroner’s court as the three-day inquest began.
Emergency services were called to the facility in the early hours of the morning after Nowland grabbed two serrated steak knives from the kitchen and refused to give up.
The 48-pound great-grandmother, who showed signs of dementia, fell and hit her head after being hit with the barbs of a Taser.
He did not regain consciousness and died in hospital a week later after a cerebral hemorrhage.
Hofner said using a “pause point” in the investigation — when first responders stop to discuss next steps when the incident escalates — could be valuable.
He said given Nowland’s mobility issues, police and ambulance officers had an opportunity to come up with a plan.
Counsel assisting Sophie Callan SC previously said one alternative was for first responders to wait, close the only door to the room where Nowland was and watch him from the window.
This did not happen and police force was used instead.
Callan said the elderly woman’s death had “shaken her family, the local community and the wider NSW community to the core”.
The 95-year-old was described as an extremely generous woman who carried out charity work into her late 80s and pursued a variety of interests including golf and travel.
Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan will examine systemic problems that existed before the stun incident and will focus on dementia care and training for aged care staff, police and ambulance officers.
Callan said given Australia’s aging population it was an opportune time to make life-saving recommendations.
The court heard that one in four people over the age of 80 has dementia.
It was predicted that the number of people with dementia would double in the next 20 years, leading to more than four percent of the population living with the disease.
Callan said the situation confronting White, with Nowland stepping towards him and his police partner holding a knife, was not exceptional enough to warrant shooting him with a stun gun.
At the time of the incident, neither NSW police nor NSW ambulance officers had received training specifically addressing responding to incidents involving people with dementia.
In 2024, ambulance officers were taught how to respond to a spatula-wielding dementia patient at an aged care facility, O’Sullivan heard.
A NSW Kumeme court jury found White guilty of manslaughter in November 2024.
He was sentenced to two years’ good behavior bail in March 2025; this decision was later upheld by the NSW criminal appeal court.
During the two-minute-and-40-second encounter at Yallambee Lodge, White drew his stun gun and pointed it at Nowland for a minute before saying “no, damn it” and firing the gun into his chest.
The 36-year-old Cooma man was removed from the force in December 2024.
He took action against NSW police at the Industrial Relations Commission to regain his post, but withdrew the bid in August.
