Bernadette Clarke, the sister of JC – the 29-year-old Ngarlawangga Yamatji Martu woman fatally shot by a police officer in September, 2019 – has spoken out on the findings of the inquest into her sister's death.

On Thursday WA State Coroner Rosalind Fogliani published her findings into the death of JC, who was shot by Officer Brent Wyndham on a suburban street in Geraldton.

"Police did not do their duty that day," Ms Clarke said.

"They failed JC in so, so many ways. Like the Coroner said, JC was going through a mental breakdown at the time. So that failure of the police has been recognised now. I'd like to thank the Coroner for recognising that the police force could have done better.

"The inquest gave me and my family a lot of healing. With the Coroner's point of view, I was able to step up from being angry and upset at what happened to being happier and having a more stable life. The inquest turned my life around. It's time to move on. These findings give me and my family some closure… It's going on six years in September since we lost JC.

"We loved JC as a family. We miss her so much to this day. But there is a lot of closure from this process."

The Aboriginal Legal Service of WA noted that the State Coroner concluded that JC's death was preventable and made adverse findings against Officer Wyndham as well as findings that WA Police missed opportunities to effectively train the police officers who attended the incident which led to JC's death.

The State Coroner said in her Findings: "I do not consider that there was sufficient recognition or understanding of JC's mental distress, complicated by her being a member of the Aboriginal community, that has historically experienced negative interactions with police, that can generate ongoing suspicion and fear."

"A clearer understanding of the impacts of intergenerational trauma, how it can contribute to substance abuse, to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and to volatility and impulsivity may have placed some of JC's behaviour into context and may have prompted a consideration of de-escalation options," the Coroner found.

ALS WA noted that the Coroner made "several important recommendations" aimed at ensuring that police and health services interact with Aboriginal community in a culturally secure fashion, including introducing Aboriginal cultural awareness training, which is co-designed by Aboriginal people, presented by Aboriginal people, is delivered regularly, face to face and is tailored to specific regions.

The Coroner also recommended continued funding of the Mental Health Co-Response which provides crisis intervention, support and care to people experiencing a mental health emergency.

ALS WA chief executive Wayne Nannup said JC was "deeply loved by her sister Bernadette, her family and her community".

"Her death at the hands of a police officer was an entirely preventable tragedy and has left JC's family and the Aboriginal community in Geraldton feeling completely distraught and profoundly angry," he said.

"In light of this, ALSWA welcomes and supports the recommendations made by the State Coroner. However, it would be a cruel betrayal of the memory of JC for the State Coroner's recommendations to sit on a shelf gathering dust. The need for urgent change cannot be ignored.

"It is incumbent on all who deal with people experiencing mental health emergencies, including police and health care services, to reform their practices in a culturally secure manner."

Mr Nannup said approach moving forward should focus on ensuring that those who are suffering from mental ill health are treated with dignity, respect and restraint, rather than cruel indifference and fatal violence.

"The recommendations should also be a catalyst for police to do the work to repair a broken relationship with Aboriginal people in WA, because the current approach, underpinned as it is by punitive and heartless policing practices, is an unmitigated failure and does the wider community no favours," he said.

"ALSWA urges police and the health system to urgently implement the recommendations made by the State Corner, so the awful fate which befell JC never occurs again.

Ms Clarke thanked the Coroner for the inquest and findings.

"The Coroner was our only voice when we could no longer use our voices anymore. I also want to acknowledge that the Coroner's Court did a welcome to country at the inquest and thank the Court for a lot of that there… It gave me a lot of healing knowing that the Coroner respected me and my family in such a way," she said.