Internal probe finalised after Yamatji woman JC’s foster mother allegedly pushed by Geraldton police officer

The officer who allegedly pushed the foster mother of Yamatji woman JC, who was fatally shot by police, during the heated arrest of her grandson in Geraldton earlier this year has been handed a “managerial sanction”. An internal investigation, which was launched by police just hours after the July 5 incident, has now concluded. “The internal investigation has been completed and the officer was subject to a managerial sanction,” a WA Police spokesperson said late last week. The officer was immediately placed on administrative duties, but has returned to normal duties since the internal probe concluded. Police have declined to elaborate on what the sanction entailed. Anne Jones and other witnesses claimed she was pushed by an officer and fell to the ground, hitting her head on the pavement, while police were trying to arrest her teenage grandson. The incident occurred during a tense week in Geraldton, as the coronial inquest into JC’s death in September 2019 had started only days earlier. Ms Jones, who said she had developed chronic pain in her back that had worsened since her fall, was disappointed with the outcome, claiming the officer would only “push another person over”. “That’s stuffed. Disgusting. I’m suffering after the fall, and he’s just going to get off scot-free to roam the streets and push the next victim. He should have got more than that,” she told The Geraldton Guardian. “I can’t stand up properly, I can’t do much around the house. After that fall I got worse.” Mid West-Gascoyne Police superintendent Steve Post sat side-by-side with Ms Jones outside the Geraldton courthouse after the incident, calling for community calm and confirming that an internal investigation had been launched which would examine if excessive force had been used. Ms Jones told reporters she went outside to intervene as police were arresting her teenage grandson and “pushing his head into the ground, the concrete floor”. When an arresting officer placed his hand on her upper chest and pushed, she said she “sort of lost my foot and I fell back and hit my head”. A video recording of the incident showed multiple officers trying to get the teenager into a police vehicle as Ms Jones is heard confronting them in a heated exchange. By that stage, the inquest examining the circumstances surrounding JC’s death was close to wrapping up its first week of evidence. Constable Brent Wyndham shot and killed the 29-year-old mother of one after she refused to drop a serrated bread knife and a pair of scissors she was carrying while walking the streets of Geraldton. The officer was charged with murder but was acquitted at trial in October 2021. Coroner Ros Fogliani has yet to hand down her inquest findings.