Clare Nowland tasered at Cooma: Family slam NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb

The family of a 95-year-old woman in critical condition after being Tasered by cops has slammed the NSW Police Commissioner for saying it is ‘not necessary’ she view bodycam video of the incident. 

Clare Nowland, a dementia sufferer who relies on a walker, was Tasered by a senior constable at 4am on Wednesday as she approached officers ‘armed’ with a steak knife at Yallambee Lodge aged care facility at Cooma, in the NSW Snowy Mountains. 

At a press conference on Saturday Commissioner Karen Webb said she has no intention to release the vision or even see it herself.

Spokesperson for Ms Nowland’s family, Andrew Thaler, told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday afternoon that Commissioner Webb has an ‘obligation’ to see the footage.

‘I don’t accept that she doesn’t have to, the buck stops with her,’ Mr Thaler said. 

‘She can’t hide, she has to stand up and take responsibility and ensure that the community and family get answers.’ 

Ms Nowland (pictured), a dementia sufferer, was Tasered by the senior constable at 4am on Wednesday as she slowly approached a team of officers ‘armed’ with a steak knife and on a walker at the Yallambee Lodge aged care facility near Cooma, in the NSW Snowy Mountains

The incident has made headlines around the world and has thrust Cooma, a town an hour south of Canberra with a population of 6,800, in the spotlight.

Mr Thaler added that he was in Cooma on Friday and said none of the media he spoke to knew Commissioner Webb had traveled there to speak to the family. 

‘The top cop thinks she can sneak in and out but we need more,’ he said. 

‘The family wants answers, the friends want answers, the community and world wants answers. I called on the commissioner to come down and she did but she also has an obligation to the community as well as the family.’

At a press conference back in Sydney on Saturday, Commissioner Webb said she didn’t need to watch the footage because the details had been described to her. 

‘I don’t really intend to, no. I have heard what is in the body worn, and I don’t see it necessary that I actually view it.’ she said.

‘Firstly I am not sure why they (the public) would want to see it, but also body worn video is subject to legislative requirements around the Surveillance Devices Act and other things, so it is not routine and we don’t intend to release it, unless there is a process at the end of this that would allow it to be released.’ 

Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge has criticised the handling of the incident and said the bodycam vision should be released if Ms Nowland’s family consented to it.

‘There needs to be an urgent and public review of this incident by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) that includes, after consultation with the family, the release of the video from the Taser,’ he said. 

‘Tasers are a potentially deadly weapon and need to be treated as such, but when the system sends in police that’s too often what they reach for.

‘The structural failing here is dispatching police to the incident when an emergency mental health team should have been available to de-escalate and treat an older woman in distress.’

Cops were called to the nursing home (pictured) after being told she had a kitchen knife. Ms Nowland was tasered while standing next to her walking frame

The great-grandmother is now receiving end-of-life care in Cooma District Hospital surrounded by her distraught family. 

On Saturday afterMr Thaler said the 95-year-old’s condition had not changed but that her breathing had become ‘shallower’, as of Saturday afternoon. 

Commissioner Webb spent time with the family on Friday and said she prioritised their wellbeing over fronting the media. She had been criticised for sending out her deputy, Peter Cotter, to front a press conference on Friday.

‘Well, firstly, there is an immediate need that the family were notified first, and that was respect for the family,’ she said.

‘They’ve got a big family that is dispersed around New South Wales and other places, and that took some time, and then we had to wait for the investigators to get onto the ground in Cooma, and those investigators have come from Sydney, and we’ve had to wait for those facts to become clear to us.

‘As I said, assistant commission Peter Cotter is in charge of this investigation and he is the designated officer, so it is important for him to talk to the fact that we know so far, and as I said, I sat with the family yesterday in Cooma.

‘So it is appropriate I talk to you today about what we are now dealing with and that is really the question of why we all want to know why, that will take time.’

When asked by reporters about whether she is concerned about how the incident reflects on the police force, she said that like everyone else she just wants to know what happened.

‘Of course I understand the community’s concern, and I am concerned, I want answers like everyone else does and I look forward to getting those answers, in time,’ she said.

The officer in question remains off-duty while an investigation is underway.

Asked why the officer had been stood down, Commissioner Webb would not divulge any further details. 

‘He is not in the workplace but I can’t articulate the reasons why he is not in the workplace,’ she told reporters.