95-year-old woman dies after being Tasered by police

A 95-year-old Australian woman who was Tasered by a police officer last week at a nursing home in New South Wales has died, according to police.

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“It was with great sadness we confirm the passing of 95-year-old Clare Nowland in Cooma tonight,” officials with the New South Wales Police Force said in a statement posted on social media.

Police said she died just after 7 p.m. while surrounded by family and her loved ones.

“Our thoughts and condolences remain with those who were lucky enough to know, love, and be loved by Mrs Nowland during a life she led hallmarked by family, kindness and community,” authorities said.

Nowland died days after she was Tasered by Senior Constable Kristian White at Yallambee Lodge, an aged care facility in Cooma, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. On Wednesday, authorities said White has been charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual body harm and common assault, the newspaper reported.

Officers were called to the facility on May 17 and found Nowland holding a steak knife, The Canberra Times and 7NEWS reported. Police previously said that body camera footage showed Nowland “confronting” authorities, though the Times noted that she had apparently “been walking slowly using a walker while holding a knife.”

Family members told the Times that she appeared to have fallen from the force of the Taser’s electric charge, hitting her head hard enough to fracture her skull and cause a brain bleed.

In a statement obtained by BBC News, Nowland’s family described her as a “well respected, much loved and a giving member of her local community” and the “loving and gentle-natured matriarch of the Nowland family.” She was the mother of eight children and had dementia, according to 7NEWS.