To feel glad the police were sacked for this and feel so upset it happened.

[Netcurtainnelly]

https://news.sky.com/story/two-officers-sacked-after-92-year-old-man-tasered-and-pepper-sprayed-in-care-home-police-watchdog-says-13595825

Poor man. He had dementia, he was in a wheelchair and was no threat. How could these officers they have treated the resident like that. Makes my blood boil. 🤬

Id be fuming if it was my loved one. Don't they have parents?

I can’t fathom how they were not found guilty of assault.

And being bashed with a baton, sprayed with harsh chemicals and tasered didn’t contribute to his death? Really? OK he may have died from a.n.other cause but how can a violent attack like that not have contributed in some way?

Neither of them should have been allowed in the Police Force in the first place place.

Nasty cruel people.

Police attract wrong ‘uns. You should see the stats on police officers and dv.
thank god they were sacked for it. Have they been named and shamed?

Haven't they got parents,?

Very relieved that they're sacked.

The way older people are treated now is horrific. Dehumanising them allows this to happen.

I’m also amazed that they weren’t found guilty in court.

I know that some people still have a (frankly inexplicable to me) sort of deference towards the police, but they’d attacked him almost immediately on entering his room. A 92 year old amputee with dementia, ‘armed’ with a rounded dinner knife, who was isolated and no threat to them or any of the residents or staff.

They didn’t take any time to speak to him, escalated the encounter far beyond what anyone would think reasonable, pepper sprayed him and drew a taser on him.

I’m assuming that the jury saw the body cam footage and yet they still managed to return that verdict! Staggering.

It horrific.
They were there for only 90s before tasering, I believe.
He was in a wheelchair and had dementia.

A tragic case. I think the sacking of these two officers was the correct outcome. I don’t understand the staff at the home calling the police? Were the staff not trained to deal with Dementia patients? I realise it must be a very difficult job to care for such patients but the police really?
Apparently the man had family. Surely the care home staff could have called a family member to speak to the old boy in the first instance. What possible threat was he to anyone? He would have probably nodded off in his wheelchair in his room eventually. It’s not like a double amputee was going to run after anyone with a butter knife.

The sacked officers probably won't get work again . Bad references. Poor gentleman, shocking way to treat a sick old person .

I agree. I've just seen the footage on the news and it looks as if they punished him for not doing what they told him. The male officer was getting more and more angry. FFS he could've just gone and taken the knife off him.

Whoever it was in the care home that thought it was appropriate to ring the police has some questions to answer too.

What a pair of disgusting and cowardly bullies. Hopefully neither of them ever has any kind of power over anyone again, in any capacity.

There are so many videos of police behaving like this A bunch of thin-skinned inadequates who join the police to enjoy exerting a bit of power of others.

Agree. So upsetting.
What utter scum they are.
Poor man and his family seeing that.
Really shocking.

Disgusting that they aren’t in prison.

Absolutely the right decision that they were sacked but also think the care home staff could’ve done more to help the situation before resorting to call the police.

My mum has dementia, and honestly at times I’ve been terrified at her outbursts when she’s upset. It’s part of the illness though, particularly in the initial stages. I don’t have any training in dealing with dementia patients but it’s surely common sense to divert a situation rather than attack first!

Their names are in the news reports - Stephen Smith and Rachel Comotto.

I totally agree with this post. The care staff must be spectacularly useless at their job if they couldn't manage a 92yr old amputee in a wheelchair in possession of a dinner knife - not a steak knife, not a kitchen knife, but a care home, probably blunt, dinner knife. He was already isolated, all they had to do was observe and wait until he was calm or tired enough to hand over or drop the knife. Nobody has any common sense anymore.

And those police officers are a bloody disgrace, just a couple of power crazed megalomaniacs thinking that the uniform gave them carte blanche to do whatever they wanted. Frankly they should be given a taste of their own medicine, it's the only thing bullies understand.

On a thread about this at the time, care staff said they're told to call the police when a confrontation with a resident can't be resolved. This is partly because infuriated dementia patients can be surprisingly strong and agile - Mr Burgess obviously wasn't agile, but he was a big man and could have seriously injured staff - and so that staff trying to handle a belligerent person don't end up being accused of assault.

The staff had been trying to distract and calm him for over an hour.

I couldn't believe how aggressive those two officers were, straight from the off! It was horrible to see. And Comotto joked about it on Facebook 😡

Happened in Australia too. A 95 year old woman, 43 kg on a walking frame was tasered by police, hit her head and died. I cannot fathom this.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-03/clare-nowland-taser-death-inquest-family-four-corners/106628234

OMG! How in the hell?

When police found her inside a room, White drew his taser. A minute later he muttered three words — "nah, bugger it" — before firing the weapon at her.

So it's not a question of inadequate training - he considered the correct course of action (don't taser old ladies on walking frames) and dismissed it.

Also from the same article:
Over a decade before Clare Nowland was killed, a 21-year-old in Sydney died after being tasered 14 times. He had been chased down by police who were attempting to arrest him for allegedly stealing two packets of biscuits.

14 times. Two packets of biscuits.

FFS. Who ever thought arming that prat with a pepper spray was a good idea? Does neither of them have older rellies or children?

A confused old man in a wheelchair is hardly going to chase you up a corridor and stab you in the back.

Had they never heard of de-escalating. Dial down the tension. Persuade the old man to swap the knife for a slice of cake or something. Turn on some music, sit and chat to him for half an hour.

I agree. A family member of mine is a serving police officer and it appalls me, frankly. He is a cruel, angry man.

Those 2 are a disgrace and the female officer making jokes about it on facebook is just twisted.

I’m also baffled that the care home called the police in the first place tbh.

This. I’m actually in two minds about whether the prosecution was right. Yes, the officers’ actions towards the elderly man were inappropriate, but it is also likely they did not understand dementia.

I think it’s possible they were acting on the information shared by the care home and probably conflated that with their more typical experiences of knife use and aggression encountered on a Friday night.

So, I also question why on earth the care home staff felt it necessary to call the police when the man was clearly not a threat. They should have activated a medication and risk assessment review or somesuch?

In an ideal situation, the officers would have had training to understand the scenarios, such as dementia, where knife use, threats and aggression do not imply a threat to others.