Officer who tasered 95-year-old grandmother suspended, according to Clare Nowland

The police officer who badly injured a 95-year-old lady after Tasering her in an Australian nursing home has been suspended.

The 33-year-old senior policeman was stood down with pay, according to the NSW Police.

While Clare Nowland is receiving “end of life care” in the hospital, the inquiry into the incident is ongoing.

Critics have criticized the police and care home staff’s behavior as being unreasonable in the face of public criticism.

Around 4:00 on Wednesday, according to police, Ms. Nowland’s care facility in Cooma, some 114 kilometers (71 miles) south of Canberra, received a call that she was “armed” with a steak knife.

When Ms. Nowland, who has dementia, started to approach “at a slow pace,” the officer pulled his gun.

She walked with a frame. However, Peter Cotter, assistant police commissioner, told the media on Friday that the woman had a knife.

Ms. Nowland is thought to have fallen and hit her head during the event, suffering a fractured skull and a significant brain bleed.

Community organizations have harshly criticized the response and demanded better de-escalation training, including the NSW Council for Civil Liberties and People with Disability Australia (PwD).

The community is upset, according to family friend Andrew Thaler, who spoke to the BBC on Friday. “The family are shocked, they’re confused… and the community is outraged,” he said.

“How is this possible? What would justify this amount of power? It’s ridiculous.

The family of Ms. Nowland said in a statement on Monday that they were appreciative of the worldwide outpouring of support but asked for privacy during this “worrying and distressing time.”

Clare is the devoted and kind-hearted matriarch of the Nowland family, according to the statement. She is also well-respected, dearly loved, and a giving member of her neighborhood community.

The homicide squad is looking into how the cops and the workers at the care facility reacted.

No officer—not one of us—is above the law, according to Mr. Cotter.

“All of our actions will be rigorously examined from both a criminal and civil perspective.”