In short:
WA Police have urged calm as they investigate how a woman became injured while her grandson was being arrested in Geraldton.
It comes as an inquest into the death by police shooting of Ms Jones’s daughter is underway in town.
What’s next?
One officer has been moved to administrative duties while police internal affairs investigate
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains the name and image of a person who has died.
WA police are investigating an altercation between an officer and the mother of a woman whose shooting death by police is the subject of an ongoing coronial inquest.
Anne Jones, 62, was knocked to the ground and received a head wound during the arrest of her teenage grandson this morning in Geraldton, 400km north of Perth.
In footage obtained by the ABC, Ms Jones can be heard telling her grandson to cooperate with officers who were attempting to detain him and asking police to let him get into their vehicle.
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An officer can be heard telling the woman “that’s enough”, which is followed by sounds of screaming as the camera appears to fall to the ground.
Police apologise, urge for calm
Midwest-Gascoyne police Superintendent Steve Post said police had been responding to reports of people fighting with poles around the corner from the Spalding home where Ms Jones was staying.
“In the course of the arrest and placing that 18-year-old in the back of the van, Anne has come out to see what was going on, what the commotion was all about,” he said.
“During the course of that, there was an altercation that occurred between the police and Anne, and Anne has fallen to the ground quite heavily and bumped her head which has caused her an injury as well as being shaken.”
Superintendent Post said the officer involved was still on duty, but has been confined to administrative duties.
He said was “very concerned” about the incident.
“We are sorry for what has happened to you today — and that’s not pre-empting anything that will come out of the investigation, because the investigation still has to be conducted,” he said.
“I’m sorry that you were injured this morning … nobody wants that kind of outcome.
“I do ask for the greater community for calm over the weekend whilst we conduct the investigation and take the appropriate action.”
Police said the 18-year-old had been released without charge and that the incident would be “independently and thoroughly investigated by the Internal Affairs Division”.
Incident amid police shooting inquest
Ms Jones raised a woman, who for cultural reasons is known as JC, who is currently the subject of a coronial inquest underway at the nearby Geraldton courthouse.
JC died when she was fatally shot by then-First Class Constable Brent Wyndham in September 2019.
The now-Senior Constable was acquitted of JC’s murder and manslaughter at a trial in 2021.
‘Deeply distressed’
Family advocate Megan Krakouer said Ms Jones had been “deeply distressed” by the event.
“With everything that’s going on, it was completely unnecessary in terms of that particular action that was taken by officers this morning,” she said.
“She is a grandmother, she has a very key role in that particular family so that causes a lot of anxiety and a lot of hurt and as a result emotions are really quite high.”
Ms Krakouer said the police response in the wake of the incident had been positive.
“What gives me some kind of solace going forward is the strong and quick and prompt response by the police this morning,” she said.
“The superintendent, I called him this morning he got onto the situation straight away. I’d had a call from the deputy commissioner and the commissioner.”
But Ms Krakouer said police were not always so quick to respond.
“This was a positive situation in this sense, but its only because Aunty Anne and I know each other, its only because I have the relationship the superintendent, with the commissioner and the deputy commissioner,” she said.
“What about all our mob that don’t have that relationship? They’re not going to be heard, they’re not going to be validated and sadly, the same immediate response may not occur in that situation.”
Ms Jones said she welcomed the investigation into the incident, but said she was “very disgusted” it had happened during the inquest.
“This is the fifth day now [of the inquest] and then this happened to me this morning,” she said.
Ms Jones echoed Superintendent Post’s request for the community to “stay calm”.
The inquest into JC’s death continues, with Senior Constable Wyndham expected to continue to give evidence today.
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