In the early hours of a Wednesday morning, 95-year-old nursing-home resident Clare Nowland climbed out of bed, grabbed her four-wheeled walker and began shuffling through the facility’s dimly lit corridors.

Only a few hours later, the great-grandmother was on her back with a fatal head injury after being tasered by police.

The officer who pulled the weapon’s trigger was Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White, who was called to the Yallambee Lodge aged-care centre in the southern NSW town of Cooma on May 17, 2023.

Just after 3am that day, Mrs Nowland had arisen before eventually finding her way to a kitchenette, where she grabbed two steak knives and a jar of prunes.

The elderly woman, who had symptoms of dementia, was later coaxed out of the rooms of two other residents by nursing staff but refused to move from a third. 

As a call was made about 4.10am by a registered nurse asking triple zero for an ambulance, Mrs Nowland threw one of the knives at a carer.

The blade missed, flying through the doorway and falling harmlessly onto the corridor floor.

After staff locked the 95-year-old in the room, she escaped by a back door and vanished.

It was into that situation that White arrived with his partner and senior officer, acting Sergeant Jessica Pank, and two paramedics.

The four of them searched the grounds with the nurse, eventually finding Mrs Nowland about 5.10am.

She was seated next to her walker on a wheeled chair in a treatment room.

The 95-year-old was holding the remaining knife and a black penlight.

Less than three minutes later, White had discharged his taser, hitting the 95-year-old in the torso, causing her to crumple forward and fall onto her back.

“Nah, bugger it,” he said before firing.

Mrs Nowland was stretchered out of the facility and taken to Cooma Hospital, where she suffered a brain bleed due to the blunt-force trauma she suffered when she hit her head in the fall.

She died a week later.

After eight hours of deliberations, a NSW Supreme Court jury is yet to decide whether White will be convicted or acquitted of manslaughter.

They will reconvene for their deliberations on Monday.

The 34-year-old officer has been accused of unlawfully killing Mrs Nowland through either criminal negligence by breaching his duty of care or by committing an unlawful and dangerous act that exposed her to a risk of serious injury.

He has always said his decision to fire the Taser was a reasonable use of force that was proportionate to the risk the great-grandmother posed with the knife.

“As a violent confrontation was imminent and to prevent injury to police, the Taser was discharged,” he wrote in a police entry describing the incident.

In bodyworn footage played to the court, White was heard talking to Sgt Pank about the sharpness of the knife and plans to either grab it from her hand or kick the wheels of her walker.

Neither strategy succeeded and Mrs Nowland was shot around two and a half minutes after police and paramedics located her.

“Oh, s***,” Sgt Pank was heard saying as the 95-year-old fell to the floor.

“Got her, grab it, grab it, grab it,” White yelled, signalling others to seize the knife.

After loading Mrs Nowland into the ambulance, Sgt Pank radioed back to Cooma police station.

“Female is fine, has small lump on head, the ambos are managing,” she said.

But one of the paramedics told the court he noticed a large bruise-like mark on Mrs Nowland’s head and facial droop, which indicated a significant brain bleed.

The 95-year-old’s daughter, Lesley Lloyd, said she was initially only told her mother had a fall and had been taken to hospital.

It was only later, after they had gathered around her mother’s bedside, that she was told the incident involved a police Taser.