Western Australian Police have launched an investigation into allegations an officer pushed to the ground the foster mother of a woman whose fatal shooting by police is the subject of an ongoing inquest.
Yamatji woman Anne Jones, 62, received a head wound after being knocked to the ground during the arrest of her teenage grandson in Geraldton.
In disturbing footage seen by National Indigenous Times, Ms Jones can be heard urging her grandson to cooperate with the officers, as well as asking the officers to let him get into the back of the vehicle.
"They were pushing his head into the ground; the concrete floor," Ms Jones said outside the Geraldton courthouse, The West Australian reports.
One officer turns to the camera and a voice is heard telling Ms Jones, "that's enough," before the footage picks up sounds of screaming as the camera appears to fall to the ground.
"I sort of lost my footing and I fell back and hit my head," Ms Jones said, adding that the officer pushed her in the upper chest.
The incident comes in the same week as a coronial inquest into the death of her daughter, who for cultural reasons is known as JC, takes place.
The inquest is examining the circumstances of JC's death in September 2019, when she was shot by Senior Constable Brent Wyndham in Geraldton.
Mr Wyndham was found not guilty of JC's murder, as well as the lesser charge of manslaughter, at a trial in 2021.
On Friday, Midwest-Gascoyne police Superintendent Steve Post said police were called with reports of people fighting with poles, around the corner from where Ms Jones is 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, as reported by the ABC.
"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."
It is understood an internal affairs team is on their way to Geraldton, and the officer involved, whilst still on duty, had been placed on administrative duties.
"I'm disappointed by what I've seen and what I've heard but I preface there is an that will get to the bottom of this and will determine the appropriate action," Superintendent Post said.
He appeared alongside Ms Jones, urging calm.
"I'm sorry that you were injured this morning … nobody wants that kind of outcome," he said.
"I do ask…greater community for calm over the weekend whilst we conduct the investigation and take the appropriate action."
Ms Jones said she was "very disgusted" that this had taken place during an inquest into her daughter's death but echoed the Superintendent's call for calm.
National Indigenous Times have contacted Western Australian Police for comment
