Police press conference after death of woman in Stockton

Newcastle Herald

Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna speaks to the media in Newcastle on September 15

Transcript

00:00 So about 12.30pm yesterday, police were called to a Stockton unit complex where a 47 year old woman allegedly threatened a person with an axe.

00:10 Police attended, they were also allegedly threatened by the woman with that axe before she retreated back into the unit.

00:17 Specialist police including tactical police and negotiators were called to the scene.

00:23 About 9.30pm last night, police entered the unit. The woman was taken into custody using tactical motions.

00:32 This included less than lethal options such as a taser and also impact munitions.

00:38 I am aware that during the arrest the woman sustained an injury to her right shoulder.

00:43 However she was able to walk to a nearby ambulance.

00:46 Shortly thereafter however, her condition deteriorated. She was taken to John Hunter Hospital and unfortunately later died there.

00:56 A critical incident investigation is now underway.

01:00 It is being led by the State Crime Command Homicide Squad. It is being independently oversighted.

01:06 The post-mortem on the woman will take place in the next few days.

01:12 In the next few days we will be able to ascertain a cause of death.

01:16 Her family has been informed and given as much information as possible and that will continue to occur.

01:22 And this matter is now before the State Coroner.

01:26 I'll take some questions if you have.

01:28 How many of those impact ammunition shots were fired before the taser?

01:32 As I understand, one.

01:34 Was she known to police?

01:36 Not significantly.

01:38 Was anyone else inside the unit?

01:41 No.

01:42 Can you explain what an impact ammunition is for somebody who might not know what that is?

01:47 Essentially it's called a beanbag style ammunition.

01:51 So it's a less than lethal option used by law enforcement agencies all around the world.

01:56 So was that used before or during the same time as the taser?

02:00 I'm not sure but that will certainly form part of the investigation.

02:05 The National Police Agency Commission has talked that the woman was being evicted and that she was threatening her real estate agent.

02:12 Can you confirm this?

02:13 I can't confirm that. I don't have that information at this point.

02:16 There's also talk that there was a baby involved in the incident.

02:19 Are you able to speak to that at all?

02:21 No baby involved that I'm aware of.

02:24 In any sense there's a lot of talk about processes that police could use.

02:30 Is there any other form of way police could disarm this sort of thing after nine hours?

02:36 Certainly that will form part of the critical incident investigation.

02:40 There's numerous tactical options that police utilize, less than lethal options.

02:44 That will all be explored during the critical incident investigation.

02:48 Can you explain why at 9.30 last night police made that decision to move in?

02:53 What sort of made them make that decision?

02:56 That will form part of the critical incident investigation.

02:59 Imagine police are still there today. What's the state of the plan at that point?

03:03 Certainly this will be a significant investigation as all critical incidents are.

03:08 We will be retrieving all available evidence to ensure this is thoroughly investigated,

03:14 independently reviewed and put before the State Department.

03:17 The officer who deployed that taser was part of the tactical squad?

03:21 Yes it was the tactical police that entered the unit.

03:24 Let's talk about possible mental health with the woman.

03:28 I'm assuming that all officers are trained heavily, especially negotiators with some type of...

03:33 Certainly we had specialist negotiators there on scene.

03:37 I don't have any information or we don't have any information at this point in time about mental health issues.

03:42 However once again that will certainly form part of that critical incident investigation.

03:47 And you mentioned she wasn't well known to police but she was known or what is that extent?

03:52 Certainly not significantly known at all. A minor matter from many years ago.

03:57 She came under police notice.

03:59 Was her family brought in for that negotiation process last night?

04:03 I can't comment on that. That will certainly be part of the critical incident investigation.

04:07 And that's for nine hours. That's quite a long time for a woman to be in that kind of aggressive state.

04:14 There's no time frame for these type of jobs. They're each done under their own merits.

04:19 We certainly don't rush these sort of things. We don't want to see people get hurt.

04:23 We want to do it as safely as we possibly can for everyone.

04:27 However all of those things we're talking about now will all form part of the investigation.

04:31 We know local police were on the scene first. At what time did the tactical response team arrive?

04:37 Local police attended shortly after 12 or 13 as I understand it.

04:42 And they attempted to negotiate with the woman themselves for quite some time.

04:48 And when that wasn't able to be achieved, then the tactical police were brought in.

04:52 There was a stabbing incident a couple of years ago on the same street.

04:57 Local residents have said that they're concerned. Are you concerned for that area?

05:01 No.

05:03 We've just got time for a couple more questions.

05:05 Was the unit her place of residence?

05:07 I understand it was. Again, I can't confirm that at this early stage.

05:12 And when you say 'at some time', do you mean like the tactical officer got there 2, 3 o'clock in the afternoon?

05:17 Within hours.

05:19 Within hours.

05:21 The injury to her shoulder, was that from the ammunition, the impact ammunition?

05:27 From the beanbag?

05:28 Yeah.

05:29 Again, I can't confirm it, but I'd say on the information I have it's likely.

05:33 Thanks everyone for your time this morning.

05:35 Thank you.

05:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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