JC murder trial: Court hears ‘reckless, thoughtless’ actions of accused police officer cost woman her life

The “reckless and thoughtless” actions of the police officer who drew his gun on an armed Yamatji woman in Geraldton not only deprived his colleagues of any tactical advantage they had, but they also cost a “disturbed and vulnerable” mother-of-one her life. That was how Director of Public Prosecutions Amanda Forrester SC summed up the choice made by the first class constable who has spent the past two-and-a-half weeks on trial accused of unlawfully shooting the 29-year-old woman, known only as JC for cultural reasons. The young officer is the first WA policeman to be charged with murder in almost a century after he fired a single bullet into the stomach of JC while she was holding a knife and a pair of scissors on Petchell Street, Rangeway on September 17, 2019. Eight officers swarmed the area that evening after police received reports of a person wandering the streets armed with the weapon. Three got out of their cars but the accused, who we cannot name, was the only one who drew his gun. He claims he only fired his gun after JC raised the knife and moved towards him. But prosecutors say JC had stopped and was not moving in the seconds before she was killed. In her closing submission, Ms Forrester told the jury - which has the task of deciding the fate of the constable – that from the moment he jumped out of the car and drew his firearm he “escalated” the situation. She said he failed to communicate with his colleagues, one of whom was already approaching JC, and decided, despite being the second most junior officer there, that he was best placed to take charge. She explained Senior Constable Adrian Barker, who was first to get out of his car and decided to approach JC unarmed believing he could talk her down, had a strategy and was in the midst of carrying it out when the accused pulled his gun. “The accused went in so fast he deprived himself of the capacity to scan the scene,” she added. She highlighted that throughout the course of the trial the defence had painted the accused as the only officer who was “brave enough to do what needed to be done”. But she said “that was patently untrue”. The accused’s “reckless and thoughtless” actions, Ms Forrester said, not only deprived himself of assessing the situation when he arrived but also “deprived” his colleagues “of every single tactical advantage that they had”. “It ended with him committing a wholly unnecessary, unwarranted, unjustified and unlawful killing of a disturbed and vulnerable woman,” she added. The trial heard other officers had used their cars to try to block JC in and were using it as cordon, and that Snr Const Barker was approaching her from side on. Ms Forrester also rejected the accused’s claims that he was acting in self-defence when he shot JC arguing he could not have believed she could have stabbed him or anyone else. “She was utterly outnumbered,” Ms Forrester said. “There was no danger of her attacking anyone.” But the accused officer’s lawyer, Linda Black, painted a different picture of her client, telling the jury in her closing that he did not go “rogue” as the state had implied, but that he was in control, he did assess the situation in the crucial 16 seconds he was there; and he didn’t fire his weapon until JC raised the knife and hunched her body towards him. She said just because her client knew that by firing the gun into JC’s stomach that it could cause a life threatening injury did not mean he intended to cause that injury. “He shot her because he was intending stop her from stabbing him,” she said. Ms Black said police officers are entitled to use any force as long as it was reasonably necessary and argued her client’s actions that day were because he was trying to overcome JC’s resistance. She told the jury JC had refused to comply with repeated requests to drop the knife from not only her client but from other officers at the scene. She also disputed the State’s suggestion that it was her client who had escalated the situation and instead placed the blame on Snr Const Barker saying it was his decision to approach JC unarmed that gave not only her client cause for concern but that of other officers at the scene. “Snr Const Barker may well have been in the force longer but you have got to think he was behaving in a thoroughly irresponsible and foolhardy way,” she said. With regards to why her client did not draw his Taser, Ms Black said he had been taught not to rely on them especially when a person is wearing baggy clothing – as JC was – because they were less effective. She also said the accused officer, who had never fired his gun until that fateful day, never wanted to shoot JC and only did so because he believed she was about to stab him. “What he did that day was his best,” she said. “He used all of the knowledge and skills he had learnt and put it all together to make sure he could go home and so his colleagues could home. “He did his best in the most difficult of circumstances.” The trial continues.