The police shot a woman last week in Sydney who claims she was the victim not the perpetrator.  She says she was beaten up by a kickboxer, although he claims she poked him with a cocktail fork.  When police arrived at the scene - they sprayed both of them - then shot the woman after she allegedly advanced towards them. She got a bullet to the spine and chest.

Could the police have made a mistake - or was this middle aged woman a serious threat, blinded with capsicum spray and brandishing her cocktail fork?



Susie Bandera, 48, claims she was initially relieved when she saw officers had been called out to the North Parramatta address where a man was allegedly assaulting her in the early hours of December 21.

"I believe he would have killed me," she said. "I was in the foetal position where he was eye-gouging me and ear-gouging me. Then I saw the police torches coming and I thought, 'Oh good, I'm safe.' "

Instead, the mother of two has a bullet wound to the chest and another police bullet lodged in her spine after it passed through her liver. Doctors have told Ms Bandera it might be too dangerous to remove the bullet.

"My right leg is gone, I can't feel it," she said. "How [the bullet] missed my vital organs, I don't know."

Friends said Ms Bandera was "upset and angry" at police and would be seeking compensation and "probably an apology" from the officers involved.

Police alleged Ms Bandera threatened officers with a knife and refused to surrender the weapon after they arrived at the Iron Street units after neighbours reported a disturbance. When Ms Bandera lunged at police, they alleged, a junior female officer fired two shots.

Ms Bandera claims she wasn't armed with a knife but a cocktail fork she had taken as protection as she walked an elderly, vision-impaired neighbour home after watching carols on television.

On her way back, Ms Bandera had encountered a 23-year-old champion kick boxer arguing on a public phone. She said he demanded to know what she was looking at. He said he followed her to ask her why she had poked him with a fork.

Anne McCabe, 73, a resident who had just returned home from a Christmas party, said she heard a commotion on the drive leading to the units. She went out to her balcony and claims that she saw the man kicking Ms Bandera in the stomach and groin before Ms Bandera sought refuge in her foyer.

"He was kicking the hell out of her," she said. "Neighbours were yelling at him to stop. He was choking, strangling her and I am standing over them yelling and yelling."

The kick boxer has denied he had assaulted Ms Bandera and has said in the media he was trying to subdue her and that he had her under control when police arrived and sprayed them both with capsicum spray.

"When I saw the police I ran towards them for help, to help me," Ms Bandera said. "And as I ran towards them she shot me, point blank."

Ms Bandera said she first thought she had been hit by a stun gun but realised she had been shot when she saw the bullet casing next to her on the ground. "I thought he'd shot me. I didn't think it was the coppers," she said.

Under observation in Westmead Hospital, Ms Bandera said she had been told her attacker had since gone to Queensland without charge, while she has been depicted as a "knife-wielding maniac" by police.

"They didn't even get a DNA sample from him, they got one from me," she said.

A police spokesman said no comment would be made until the critical incident team finished its investigations into the shooting.

But for Mrs McCabe, who said she was the prime witness and her unit the crime scene, the case was simple. In her view, when the police officer opened fire in her tiny foyer - with a bullet ricocheting into her unit to miss her by inches - she shot the wrong person.

"A woman shouted out and I could hear her shouting out, 'You shot the bloody victim,"' she said.

"And that's in my formal statement. The policewoman obviously shot in panic, she shot the wrong person."

DT:

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Where did they say that?

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Witnesses who didn't see everything, like him getting pepper sprayed and it not stopping him. If that's not out of control, I don't know what is.

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Not difficult at all. They followed procedure and got the situation under control. It was Tyler who raised the stakes so high.

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Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Do you cry 'society is to blame' everytime someone does the wrong thing?

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I think you are leaving out a few very obvious clues there DT.

Oceans:

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Not if they are armed Oceans. They are trained to subdue them with pepper spray, then if that doesn't work, to subdue them with lethal force.

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They did try CS. It didn't work.

Amadd:

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Why guilty until proven innocent?

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If you fail to stop when you get CS sprayed in your face, then you have serious issues.

Mozz:

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Leave out the insults please Mozz.

Cop tells why he shot Tyler Cassidy

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/cops-only-safe-option-was-to-draw-gun-on-tyler-cassidy-inquest-told/story-e6frf7kx-1225972222739

A SENIOR officer involved in the fatal shooting of Tyler Cassidy fought tears as he told a court he felt compelled to draw his gun because he feared the armed teen would harm him.

The inquest into Tyler's death was hearing for the first time from one of the four police present when the agitated 15-year-old was shot dead at a Northcote skate park in December 2008.

"I was extremely concerned about the aggressive behaviour of (Tyler) and that he was still armed with two large kitchen knives," Sgt Colin Dods told the Coroner's Court.

"I had concerns for the wellbeing and safety of the general public."

While reading his statement to the court, Sgt Dods had to compose himself several times.

After describing how he and colleague Sen-Constable Richard Blundell first encountered Tyler near Northcote Plaza, Sgt Dods said in his statement: "His hands were held between waist and chest height and the blades of each knife were pointed towards us."

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The two men ordered Tyler to drop the knives, to which the teen is said to have replied: "You are going to have to shoot me ... I'll hurt you! I'll f------ kill you!"

The court heard Sgt Dods sprayed an advancing Tyler with capsicum foam, sending the teen running into the adjacent skate park.

"We kept up the verbal commands telling him that there was no need for anyone to get hurt and to drop the knives and get on the ground," he said.

By that stage the two men and constables Nicole de Propertis and Antonia Ferrante had Tyler surrounded.

Tyler, standing "poised", was sprayed with foam a second time but refused to drop the knives. Sgt Dods said he then drew his gun as Tyler marched towards him.

"I anticipated that I was going to get hurt because he was advancing towards me and was aggressive and armed with two knives, one still in each hand," he said.

"To deploy the OC spray at this point effectively would have brought me too close ... I determined that drawing my firearm was the only safe option at that point in time."

Sgt Dods said he tripped while being forced backwards up stairs at the skate ramp.

He fired a warning shot into the ground causing Tyler to momentarily flinch. He then tried to stop Tyler by shooting at his legs.

"(Tyler) was still yelling threats towards me such as, 'I'm going to kill you'," Sgt Dods said.

He then heard several shots coming from the direction of fellow officers.

"It was then obvious to me that my attempt at leg shots had not had the required effect on the male as he had still advanced towards me," he told the court.

"I therefore formed the belief that I needed to stop (Tyler) by any means and took aimed shots on target at his chest area.

"I kept firing at (Tyler's) chest until he went to ground."

The inquest continues.

IMO, the line was drawn when Mozz stated that he'd kill a seven yr. old girl in the same circumstance. I was very saddened by that. What on earth have we come to?

It's a dispicable system, well overdue for a revolution.

Would you approach a 17 YO kid with a knife after CS and bullets to the leg failed to stop him? Either you expect cops to be complete idiots, or you expect them to let this kid go round stabbing random members of the public. You don't have to be Arnold Shwarzenegger to pose a threat with a knife.