Police officer who tasered Clare Nowland tells court his job was to ‘maintain the peace’

Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White said situation with 95-year-old carrying knife ‘was not going to be resolved without the use of force’

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A police officer who tasered a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home – after which she died – said he tried to give her “every opportunity to drop the knife” she was carrying, but she had “made her intent clear: she was going to use that knife on anyone that got near her”.

Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White tasered great-grandmother Clare Nowland, who was armed with a serrated knife and threatening police and staff, at her Cooma nursing home in May 2023. She died a week later from head injuries sustained when she fell backwards from the force of the Taser.

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