Cop punched Nathan Tran before music festival drug death, inquest hears
A police officer at a music festival where teenager Nathan Tran died after ingesting MDMA has denied punching the 18-year-old in the face as he tried to restrain him. Earlier today, a fellow music festival reveller told an inquest she saw the officer grab Nathan by the throat and hit him.
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A police officer charged with keeping public order at Knockout Circuz festival disputed he punched patron Nathan Tran in the face when he collapsed in an “aggressive” MDMA-induced fit but put him in a headlock to restrain him.
Detective Senior Constable Brenton Magee told the inquest into six drug festival deaths today how he “power-walked” towards the teenager thrashing out against two security guards, holding him up and grabbed him by the collarbone.
Part-time McDonald’s worker Tran, 18, had shared a bottle of water mixed with MDMA and bought four capsules of the drug before collapsing at the event at 10.20pm.
He had to be held down to the ground and handcuffed by police before he was carried to the medical tent where paramedics stripped him and attempted to cool his boiling 41C body with ice packs.
Sedative midazolam was used amid attempts to insert a breathing tube. Paramedics rushed him by ambulance to Westmead Hospital where he suffered a cardiac arrest.
A protracted 90-minute CPR effort to save him failed and he was pronounced dead at 12.05am.
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“The first thing I thought when I saw him was the need to control him, I saw he was going to break away from the group,” Detective Senior Constable Magee told the inquest.
“I power-walked towards him, he was thrashing his head, I grabbed him with my right hand open above the clavicle and turned my body around and put my arm around him so my bicep is at the back of his neck, keeping his airways free.
“I used the right amount of force.
“It might have looked like I punched someone but I most certainly did not.”
The court heard how Tran was wrestled to the ground by police and security guards and handcuffed face down.
“I was concerned for Nathan’s welfare … My focus was to control him, have him restrained and move him into the medical tent as quickly as we could,” Mr Magee said.
“It (drugs) made him harder to control, physically, when he was conscious he would thrash and become aggressive, when he lost consciousness he became heavy, it was really hard to move him into the tent.”
Senior operational safety instructor, Sergeant John Waters reviewed footage of police restraining Tran and believed there was no excessive force used or obstruction of airwaves.
“A headlock is not an appropriate use of force, it’s not a technique we would use, as you can cut off a airway, we don’t use that as a preferred technique but he (Magee) did not cut the airway in this case.”
The inquest is also probing the deaths of Callum Brosnan, 19, Joshua Tam, 22, and Alexandra Ross-King who was 19.
TEEN ‘PUNCHED’ BY COP BEFORE FESTIVAL DRUG DEATH
Earlier in the inquest, a reveller told how she saw a heavy-handed police officer grab teenager Nathan Tran by the throat and “punch” him in the face in a bid to restrain him after he collapsed, thrashing in an MDMA-induced seizure.
The young woman, 28, told the inquest into six festival deaths today the part-time McDonald’s worker collapsed facedown on a group of people sitting beside her on the grass when police and security guards swooped in to restrain him.
She also told how earlier a female police officer warned her “I’m going to make this nice and slow” when she was strip searched in a metal room, unless she told her where she was hiding drugs at the event at Sydney Olympic Park on December 17, 2017.
But the young woman did not have any drugs on her and none were found.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she has “never” taken illicit drugs and felt so humiliated by the search she now refuses to attend hardcore dance festivals in Sydney.
“I saw a man (Nathan) stumble out of the exit, Nathan was two or three metres away from me … he fell face-first. I remember hearing a thud, two minutes later one security guard put his knee on his back and another pulled his arms behind his back,” she told the court.
Two more security guards lifted Nathan from under his arms to his feet.
“His body was limp, he was unresponsive. I saw a police officer come over and more security guards,” she said.
“One police officer grabbed him by the throat, Nathan was thrashing his head about … I saw him strike Nathan.
“The crowd was tense. I saw him punch Nathan in the face.”
Tran had to be handcuffed by police and carried into the medical tent, the inquest heard.
He died after consuming “lethal” levels of the party drug, which sent his boiling body into cardiac arrest, pathologist Jennifer Pokorny told the court.
He had shared a bottle of water mixed with MDMA and bought four MDMA capsules before collapsing at the event at 10.20pm.
“I would not go to another festival in Australia (after I was strip searched) because it’s too much drama,” she said.
“You get a lot of anxiety going, it’s not fun.”
She described being strip searched the night Tran died as “unpleasant and humiliating”.
“A drug dog had come up to me and a police officer tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘come with us’,” she recalled tearfully.
“I was confused, she yelled at me ‘put your hands up’. I was taken into a metal room and she said ‘tell me where the drugs are?’
“I said I didn’t have any, I was nervous.
“She told me to take my top off and my bra. I tried to cover my boobs but she told me to put my hands up.
“‘If you don’t tell me, I’m going to make this nice and slow,’ she told me.”
“She made me take off my shorts and underwear and I was made to squat and cough, squat and cough … I don’t really drink or take illicit drugs.
“After that it wasn’t the greatest night. I felt judged and intimidated.”
Security guard Macro Petrovic said he did not recall police restraining Tran by the neck.
“I remember an officer holding him by the shoulder, or that region. There was force, I do not recall a throat hold and a strike,” he said.
“He was thrashing his head consistent with being handcuffed.”
Deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame said she found policing levels at Show Your Colours music festival at Sydney Showground on June 15 “intense”.
“There were lines and lines of police and dogs. I was surprised by how intense it was,” she said.
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