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