A warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers this next story contains the image of a person who has died. A coronial inquest is continuing into the death of an Indigenous woman fatally shot by a police officer in Geraldton in the West Australian mid-west in 2019. The Yamma-Gee woman JC was carrying a knife and scissors when she was shot by Police Constable Brent Wyndham in 2019. He was charged with her murder but acquitted by a supreme court jury in 2021.
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00:00We're on day two of the coronial inquiry into the death of JC, who was fatally shot by a
00:08police officer on the streets here in Geraldton, about 400 kilometres north of Perth, back
00:13in 2019. Now, the inquiry is setting out to understand the circumstances around JC's death.
00:21As you said, the officer who pulled the trigger, Constable Brent Wyndham, was acquitted of
00:25murder and the lesser charge of manslaughter back by a Supreme Court jury in 2021. But
00:31it's mandatory to hold an inquest into a death where the actions of police may have contributed
00:37to that death. Outside the court behind me here, members of the First Nations community
00:42have gathered. They've placed crosses in the ground along with Aboriginal flags, which
00:48they say represent deaths in custody that have impacted them. Inside the court, a coronial
00:55process is underway and State Coroner Roz Fogliani is working her way through hearing
01:01evidence from the eight officers who responded to JC when she was walking down the street
01:06that day back in 2019. Now, the terms of the inquest have been outlined and they are hoping
01:13to address the broader issues and systems that may have been at play. Ultimately, a
01:19coronial inquiry is setting out to understand and prevent similar deaths from occurring
01:24in the future. And so that's what the line of questioning is about today. The specific
01:31issues that have been outlined and what this inquiry is setting out to look at is how police
01:39actions and attempts by officers to de-escalate the situation. Were there attempts by officers
01:46to de-escalate the situation before JC was shot? They are looking at the decisions by
01:51officers to use force or not to use force. And they're looking at the appropriateness
01:58of WA police policies and training and ultimately, were our officers adequately prepared to deal
02:06with people in mental distress who may be Aboriginal and may also be dealing with issues
02:12of substance abuse. So Alice, you've outlined a bit of what was said there today. What's
02:16still to come? So still to come, while we've heard from a number of officers so far this
02:24week, still to come is Constable Brent Wyndham, who was the officer who pulled the trigger.
02:29So later this week, we do expect to hear evidence from him. It's interesting as each witness
02:35that steps up, representatives from legal teams representing WA police, members of the
02:42family, each get to pursue their own lines of questioning and inquiry. So members of
02:48the family, legal representatives representing members of JC's family will have the opportunity
02:54to ask Constable Wyndham questions.