WA cop who shot and killed Indigenous woman ‘acted too hastily': coroner
Western Australia's chief coroner has found a police officer who shot and killed an Indigenous woman on a Geraldton street in 2019 'acted too hastily' and escalated a situation which was preventable.
Yamatji woman JC, 29, died after she was shot in the stomach at close range by Brent Wyndham after her family had called police to report concerns she was wandering around, dazed and carrying a large knife and a pair of scissors.
Wyndham, a first class constable at the time, was one of the most junior officers who attended the scene and the only one who drew his gun towards the mentally unwell woman. He was charged with murder, but was acquitted after going to trial in 2021.
He told the jury in his trial that JC had turned and 'squared off' to him in a 'fighting stance' while she was around four metres away.
'She was going to attack me ... she raised the knife up and her body has come forward like she was going to lunge at me and I just shot her.'
A coronial inquest into the death, heard in both Geraldton and Perth, found JC did not lunge at Wyndham, nor step towards him, but there was likely movement of her arm that the officer interpreted as forward momentum and a perceived threat.
Handing down her findings on Wednesday, Coroner Ros Fogliani said the eight police officers who attended the scene could have considered de-escalation options.
'The police officer who shot JC, within 17 seconds of getting out of his vehicle, did not know, when he exited the car, if the person holding the knife was a male or a female,' she said.
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