The family of a NSW woman who died after being tasered have slammed police responses to people in mental health distress and say they want justice for their mother.
Krista Kach, 47, died in hospital last week following an incident in which she barricaded herself inside her Newcastle unit and was tasered when police tried to arrest her.
NSW Police said they were called due to reports a woman was threatening people with an axe, alleging officers were also threatened.
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Several hours later, officers gained access to the unit and deployed a taser, as well as non-lethal “bean bag” rounds, while attempting to arrest her.
Police said Kach sustained a shoulder injury during the arrest, but she was able to walk to a nearby ambulance.
She was taken to John Hunter Hospital, where her condition deteriorated and she later died.
The incident is now subject to a critical investigation led by the state’s homicide squad.
Kach’s family disputed police claims she was dangerous, saying she was simply distressed after being told she would be evicted from her unit.
They said police were told she was not well and needed medical help.
“We were assured that the police would look after our mother and that she would be cared for by a hospital and qualified medical professionals,” the family said in a statement.
“What happened on Thursday was a disturbing and heartbreaking response by the police to a vulnerable person that had been told that she would soon be homeless.”
The family added they found out officers had used a taser from media reports rather than NSW Police.
The second Taser incident
Kach’s death is the second fatal incident involving NSW police using a Taser in recent months after 95-year-old Clare Nowland died at a Cooma nursing home in May.
On Sunday, a 32-year-old man was shot during a welfare check at the inner-Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst after he allegedly confronted officers armed with a knife.
Greens MP and justice spokeswoman Sue Higginson is pressuring the Minns Labor government to support a parliamentary inquiry into NSW Police responses to vulnerable people.
“(Krista) was a person who had lived in her home, had reliably paid rent and she was also somebody who wasn’t known to police,” she said on Monday.
“So the police response was just astounding and unfathomable that they weren’t able, within that nine hours, to interpret that there was a woman who just needed some care, security and calming.”
Inquiry needed
Higginson said an inquiry would be an opportunity to uncover the systemic reform needed to ensure such an incident did not happen again.
“Unless we have a good, forensic, deep look into where the system is failing, then we won’t know what circumstances police should attend, when they should attend in the company of medical experts and when they should not attend,” she said.
“We failed Krista, in her most vulnerable moments, and most difficult moment in her life.”
Higginson obtained footage filmed by Kach in the lead-up to police entering her unit, which reportedly includes her referring to the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement and various conspiracy theories.
NSW Police Association president Kevin Morton said officers shouldn’t be handling serious mental health incidents.
“The mental health crisis team should be the people that are interacting with this, but there’s been no funding for NSW Health to achieve this goal and at the moment it just falls fairly and squarely on the lap of police,” he told ABC Radio.
NSW Police have been contacted for comment.
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