My Thoughts: Courtney Jayde Topic

Every day there are tragic deaths, sometimes due to evil but more often due to bad luck and the randomness of the world. And then there are some deaths that should not happen, that are needless and avoidable. One such death caught my attention back in 2015.

On 10 February of that year, twenty-two year-old Courtney Jayde Topic was wrongly, unnecessarily and avoidably killed by a New South Wales police officer.

Courtney had some mental problems but she was not violent, aggressive or dangerous. On the last day of her life she went to the Hungry Jack’s in West Hoxton, Sydney, and bought herself a dollar Coke. For some reason she took a carving knife with her. By time she walked outside, police had been called. Significantly, the callers were concerned about harm to her, not others. Courtney had not threatened anyone.

Forty-one seconds after the arrival of the police, Courtney was shot. A taser had failed to fire, capsicum spray had done nothing but cause her pain, so she was shot by a young constable. She had allegedly “lunged” forward with the knife - some ineffectual girlish lunge at worst. More likely, blundering around, flailing, while blinded by the spray might be closer to the truth.

Courtney had not been threatening. She was not a strong young man. She was not some Amazon. She was not a commando. Courtney was just a young girl needing the knife taken from her and taken home.

The coroner opined that police needed in training in handing people with mental problems. No. What was needed on that day was for a policeman not to shoot, but to holster his gun, step forward, grab Courtney’s wrist and disarm her. As Courtney was running back and forth, perhaps it would have required two policemen to do so, but two policemen were there, available. (Three police were present, one a woman.)

That this should have been done, and was not, is the key point in this failure by the police and what makes the killing so needless. Sickening.

Were the police in danger? Mobile phone video shows Courtney being silly with the knife, but not aggressive. The video shows her trying to run from capture, not attacking. And if you are a police officer, surely some degree of risk goes with the territory.

The family tells of police being caring for Courtney as she died, and supportive of them. Probably, the other police were shocked by the constable going off half-cocked, shooting. But nonetheless the NSW Police closed ranks and the shooter was not disciplined, nor sacked, let alone prosecuted. He got away with it.

That policeman took a young girl’s life. If he had any decency, he would take his own.