A mentally ill man who died after being tasered and arrested by at least six police officers had been under sedation only hours before he died, according to New South Wales police.

The unarmed 30-year-old man was arrested on Sunday after he escaped from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was being held under the Mental Health Act.

Police were called to apprehend him at 1pm but the man was “non-compliant and aggressive”, according to NSW police assistant commissioner Mark Walton. He was capsicum-sprayed, tasered and arrested by six police officers before he stopped breathing.

On Monday, Walton told reporters the man had already been arrested earlier in the day and was medically sedated before he escaped.

“At 10.30am police were called to reports of a male running into traffic at Bridge Street, Glebe,” he said. “A violent confrontation continued which required additional police to restrain the man. He was sedated and physically restrained in an ambulance stretcher and taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital.”



At 12.50pm, police were told the man had escaped from hospital and, at 1pm, they found him on Carillon Avenue in Camperdown.

Three officers attempted to apprehend him but he could not be subdued, Walton said. Multiple cars were called as back-up and six officers overall came into “direct contact” with the man.

Walton said there was no police body camera footage of the arrest. However, there was footage taken automatically by the taser itself.



In March 2012, Brazillian Roberto Laudisio Curti died after being arrested, tasered and pepper-sprayed multiple times by NSW police officers.



A damning coronial report recommended that, when calling for back-up, NSW police inform other officers that suspects are suffering from signs of mental disturbance.

Walton said the officers on the scene on Sunday “had a concept” that the man was mentally disturbed and had been in hospital for mental health issues.

They were attempting to detain him to return him to hospital for treatment, he said.

The coroner also recommended that police prohibit the use of a taser’s drive stun mode – where a taser is held against a person’s body and causes pain instead of incapacitation – other than when officers are defending themselves from attack. Walton could not disclose whether that mode had been used.

Homicide squad investigators have begun an investigation into the man’s death. It will be independently reviewed and all information will be provided to the coroner, who will determine the cause of death, Walton said.

Earlier this month, police also commenced a critical incident investigation into the death of 31-year-old Indigenous man Patrick Fisher, who fell from a balcony after an attempted police arrest in his home.