There are calls for an independent investigation into the arrest of an Indigenous teenager who said she was having a panic attack in Sydney and was subsequently released without charge.
Lili Bayles, who is also Indigenous, has said she was “thrown to the ground” when trying to help her partner, Tarniesha Widders, 19, who was handcuffed while reportedly suffering an anxiety attack in Darlington last Thursday.
The women’s lawyer, George Newhouse, said neither had been charged with an offence and nurses, not police, should have been sent to deal with the “mental health crisis”.
“It is my view and the view of many First Nations people that police should never be first responders in a mental health crisis,” Newhouse said. “Police are trained to use weapons and not words in difficult situations.”
Video footage published by ABC radio program Hack showed Bayles talking to Widders near a fence of a children’s playground before police approached from behind and pulled Bayles backwards. Onlookers in the video called for police to “de-escalate” the situation and asked: “Why are you arresting them?”
Yarraka Bayles said her daughter was “only trying to help” when she was restrained and questioned by officers.
She said the footage showed neither Lili nor Widders were committing an offence and police “escalated the situation” by “using force”.
“My daughter was only trying to help her partner when NSW police officers laid their hands on her and threw her to the ground by her collar,” Bayles said in a statement.
“She was simply assisting her partner manage her anxiety attack and did nothing to be treated so appallingly.
“The video footage shows clearly that my daughter’s partner was in need of care. That’s what my daughter was doing when NSW police escalated the situation by using force against a person who was not resisting arrest.”
Lili Bayles told the ABC she tried to “explain to the police that [Widders] is panicking, she is having an anxiety attack”.
“She just kept saying ‘I’m panicking, I have special needs, please move’ and they just would not move,” Bayles said.
NSW police said officers were “conducting proactive patrols” at the time due to “a number of recent break-ins and stealing offences” in the area when they spotted a woman with a jumper on her head.
“They observed a woman who had a jumper pulled over her head and appeared to attempt to hide behind parked cars,” it said in a statement.
“When the officers approached the woman and asked her to stop, she continued to walk in the opposite direction.
“After the woman was unable to produce identification or provide the address of where she was staying, police requested her details to conduct checks to assist with confirming her identity.”
Police said Widders was “pushed back and later restrained” by officers because she “became aggressive and spat towards police before telling officers she would run from them and … she started to walk away”.
Police said Lili Bayles “approached and had to be physically removed after she attempted to intervene by holding on to the 19-year-old woman”.
Newhouse said the incident should be referred to the independent police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, and the director of public prosecutions.
“I envisage that we will be following up over the coming days with a formal complaint,” he said.
Both women had been through “an incredibly traumatic experience”. “As far as I am aware no one has been charged with any offence, and it is obvious that no offence was committed,” he said.
Newhouse said the police response proved more training was needed to deal with mental health crises. The lessons of previous royal commissions had not been learnt.
“The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody called for police training to address incidents of this kind. It is obvious that the NSW police have not implemented that recommendation.”
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