Coronial inquest continues into the Canberra tasering death of Anthony Caristo
The daughter of Anthony Caristo, who died when tasered by police, addressed the inquest into her father’s death.
Canberra Star
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The daughter of Anthony Caristo, who died after being tasered by police says she “wanted to hate” the officer who pulled the trigger but now realises he was “suffering” under the weight of having killed a man.
Mr Caristo, 54, died after being tasered by ACT police Acting Sergeant Nathan Macklin tasered him in the chest at his home in Waramanga in October 2017.
An inquest into Mr Caristo’s death on Tuesday, his daughter, Carley Sales-Caristo, said in a statement she had serious questions about the police use of tasers that day.
“Why did they not wait for a negotiation team?” her statement said.
“How did three highly trained men not devise a plan to de-escalate the situation?”
Acting Sgt Macklin gave evidence in person last year.
Ms Sales-Caristo said of the officer: “I wanted to hate him, but instead I saw a man who appeared to be suffering just as I am.”
She said the death of her father left her feeling “angry, followed by disbelief” and she now felt “completely numb”.
“The day my dad died was the day my heart broke,” she said.
She said her father was “doing really well” and had quit drinking in the lead-up to his death.
Ms Sales-Caristo said she was “left in the dark and provided restricted details of the information that I needed to know” following her father’s death.
Documents presented to the inquest showed ACT police pulled their tasers 154 times in 2018, but only fired them 27 times.
ACT policing Deputy Chief Police Officer Michael Chew said the substandard video footage that tasers took when the trigger was pulled prompted the introduction of body-worn cameras, which begin recording of an officer pulls a taser or gun from its holster.
In a bizarre exchange, Mr Chew repeatedly insisted tasers were “less than lethal”, despite the manufacturer saying they “may cause or contribute to the sudden death” of a person who is shot.
“The actual application of a taser doesn’t have the ability to cause death,” he said.
Mr Chew later backtracked, saying “any use of force has the ability to have adverse outcomes”.
Mr Chew said there were no plans to change police rules around using tasers.
The inquest continues.