Cop used neck hold ‘for first time’ before man’s death
Originally published on The West Australian by Rex Martinich AAP.
An inquest into the death of an Indigenous man has heard a police officer used a neck restraint technique for the first time just before the arrest turned fatal.
Steven Lee Nixon-McKellar, 27, died shortly after having pressure applied to his neck while a senior constable arrested him outside a relative’s house in Toowoomba on October 7, 2021.
Mr Nixon-McKellar’s family requested he be referred to as Steven during the Coroner’s Court hearings, which started at Toowoomba on Monday.
Under cross-examination by Mr Levitt, Const Smart denied his bear hug had prevented Steven from complying with directions to get on the ground.
Speaking outside court, Steven’s mother Raelene said she hoped the inquest would lead to accountability for the officers and Queensland following other states to ban the LVNR.
“One of the things we showed up for this week is to find out why my son was pursued with such aggression with no further information,” Ms Nixon said.
About 40 people gathered outside the courthouse before the start of proceedings for a Black Lives Matter rally to mark 551 Indigenous deaths that organisers say have died in custody since a royal commission made its recommendations in 1991.
An inquest will be held to investigate the fate of a Kimberley man who went missing during a pig-hunting trip in outback Queensland in 2021.
Since a coronial investigation into the disappearance of Jeremiah Rivers started in March last year, family members have called for an inquest in the hope such an examination of the baffling case would lead to a breakthrough.
The ABC has now confirmed Queensland coroner Donald MacKenzie has decided to proceed with an inquest, potentially in the latter half of this year.
A spokesperson for the Queensland Coroners Court said in a statement that a pre-inquest conference would be held in Brisbane on June 20.
“The coroner will traverse a number of matters, including which individuals or corporations can appear or have representatives appear, what issues are to be considered, which witnesses will be called, the length and place of the inquest, and the contents of the brief of evidence,” a spokesperson said.
The case has caused deep heartache in the Indigenous community of Warmun and the wider East Kimberley, where many of the Gija man’s relatives live.
This week family members gathered to mark what would have been Mr Rivers’ 29th birthday.
The ABC approached the family for comment and understands they welcomed the inquest and hoped it would lead to a breakthrough.
His loved ones also spent months searching the vast outback landscape where he disappeared but could not find any clues to his whereabouts.
Senior Constable Tylarr Colman on Monday told the first hearing of the coroner’s inquest at Toowoomba courthouse that he placed Steven in what is officially known as a lateral vascular neck restraint (LVNR) within five seconds of spotting him struggling with two officers.
Two other officers had responded to an anonymous phone call about a grey Subaru SUV displaying another vehicle’s number plate outside a house in Toowoomba.
“Given both officers were completely fatigued I didn’t have many other options,” Sen Const Tylarr Colman said.
Under questioning from counsel assisting, Julie Pietzner-Hagan, Sen Const Tylarr Colman said he had completed training in the LVNR technique one month before but had used a different neck restraint called a choke hold in his personal martial arts activities.
“I found it quite strange for him to go unconscious that quickly as that hadn’t happened in training scenarios,” Sen Const Colman said.
The inquest heard the difference between the holds was the LVNR put pressure on the sides of the neck to constrict the flow of blood to the brain while the choke hold pressured the windpipe and blocked the flow of air.
One of the officers needing assistance, Senior Constable Simon Giuliano, testified earlier in the day he yelled “choke this c*** out, choke him out” and “he’s asleep” when the hold was applied to Steven.
Steven was later unable to be resuscitated by paramedics because his throat was obstructed by vomit.
Steven’s family and friends were warned by State Coroner Terry Ryan the officer’s body-worn footage to be played at the inquest could be upsetting but many chose to stay.
“I have to see what they done to my grandson, they have got to be stopped,” a woman in the public gallery said.
Solicitor for the Nixon-McKellar family, Stewart Levitt, suggested to Sen Const Colman that he had mistakenly applied the hold to Steven and had caused his death instead of subduing him.
“Definitely not, I did not lose position on the LVNR,” he said.
Sen Const Giuliano also disagreed with Mr Levitt’s suggestion he and another officer, Constable Brandon Smart, had treated Steven as “less than a person” by assuming he had committed a crime and tried to physically constrain him for no reason.
Const Smart, who was sworn in as an officer in 2018, said he approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and yelled for its occupants to get out because he thought the SUV would ram their police van.
Footage showed Steven wrestling with both officers and trying to grab their batons.
“I struck him in the quad with my baton to achieve compliance and it was not effective so I wrapped the baton around in a bear hug and, as he was larger than me, it was not effective,” Const Smart said.
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