A "frail" grandmother allegedly "had a steak knife in her hand" from a nursing home kitchen when she was Tasered by a police officer in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.
Clare Nowland, 95, is in a critical condition in hospital after the confrontation with police at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma on Wednesday morning.
Aged care home staff had called emergency services after Nowland was seen with the serrated knife.
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"The call was along the lines of one of the patients, Clare, has a knife in her possession," NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter said.
"Negotiations commenced with Clare to essentially drop the knife but for whatever reasons, Clare did not do that," he said.
"One of the police officers who attended, a senior constable, activated his Taser, which struck Clare, whereby she fell to the ground, striking her head."
She was treated by staff and paramedics at the nursing home before being rushed to Cooma Base Hospital, where she is currently in "ill health" and fighting for her life.
"I am not in a position to talk about her diagnosis or her prognosis except to say she is in a critical condition and her friends and family surround her," Cotter said.
"We treat this matter with extreme significance."
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Nowland is well-known in the community and has a family of children and great-grandchildren supporting her.
The senior constable involved is no longer on duty.
A critical incident investigation has been launched and will be led by the State Crime Command's Homicide Squad, as is standard.
The officer's bodycam was activated at the time.
"It is confronting footage," Cotter said.
"It forms a significant and integral part of the investigation and it is not in the public interest to be releasing that."
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