Coroner hears closing submissions in inquest into Indigenous woman’s shooting death

The death of a woman fatally shot by police while she was carrying a knife could have been avoided, her family’s lawyer says.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains the name and image of a person who has died.

The 29-year-old Yamatji woman, referred to as JC for cultural reasons, was shot dead by officer Brent Wyndham after she was reported walking down a suburban street holding a knife in September 2019.

Two years later, Mr Wyndham was acquitted of her murder after telling the WA Supreme Court he acted in self defence, believing she was going to stab him before he fired his weapon.

A coronial inquest into JC’s death, which has examined the actions of eight police officers who were on the scene when the fatal shooting took place, heard closing submissions on Wednesday.

Kathleen Heath, representing JC’s sister Bernadette Clarke, conceded that while Coroner Ros Fogliani cannot make findings that would contradict the Supreme Court jury’s not guilty verdict, it remained open for her to find the circumstances in which she died were avoidable.

Safe distance not maintained

Prosecutors at Mr Wyndham’s murder trial told the Supreme Court that 16 seconds elapsed between him exiting his car, moving towards JC, and pulling the trigger.

He did not maintain a distance of seven metres required by WA Police use of force protocols for offenders armed with an edged weapon.

Ms Heath asked the coroner to find JC did not “lunge” at the then-Constable Wyndham, and his recollection that she did was mistaken due to his heightened state in something known as a “body alarm” reaction to a stressful event.

She said it was also not supported by the evidence of the other officers present, nor by CCTV footage of the incident, albeit filmed from more than 60 metres away.

Officer Wyndham’s lawyer, Jason MacLaurin SC, submitted that adverse findings on his conduct, and whether JC lunged at him before she was shot, were not open to the coroner because they would “cut across” the Supreme Court jury’s decision which upheld his actions as reasonable and necessary.

But Ms Heath argued an adverse finding would not contravene the Supreme Court jury’s decision because at the time he may have genuinely believed it was a reasonable act of self defence.

Mental health emergency line floated

Ms Heath also called for recommendations that would fundamentally change how police respond to people experiencing mental health distress.

She proposed the adoption of a health-led model with a dedicated mental health emergency call line, arguing initial triaging by a mental health team could have “shaped the response” of officers on the scene in Geraldton.

Ms Heath said such triaging could be of more help if it included information provided in an earlier triple-0 call by one of JC’s family members, from a home a few blocks away where JC had been visiting, concerned for her welfare.

“The establishment of such a line … [would] empower the community to access help they need without fearing they would be putting their loved one at the risk of arrest or harm,” she said.

Ms Heath said WA Police training – particularly in the regions — needed to be substantially overhauled and this incident revealed “systemic failing in the way officers were equipped and trained to respond to situations of this kind, that were skewed towards use of force rather than de-escalation”.

“The public is entitled to expect police can resolve this situation without use of force, and especially without use of lethal force,” she said.

The lawyer representing WA Police extended the Police Commissioner’s condolences to JC’s family for the “immeasurable loss they suffered” while the lawyer for the Department of Health said the service had adopted cultural governance guidelines in 2021 that centred Indigenous perspectives in its mental health policies and practices.

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