Police tasered a man after he stabbed himself in the leg, chopped finger off

A police officer tasered Anthony Caristo to prevent him from killing himself after he’d plunged a knife into his own leg and cut off his finger, an inquest has heard.

Anthony Caristo died after being tasered at his Canberra home in October 2017.

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A police officer tasered a man to prevent further self harm after he had chopped his own finger off and stabbed himself in the leg, an inquest has heard.

Acting Sergeant Nathan Macklin told the court Anthony Caristo was covered in blood, holding a large knife and was “frothing at the mouth” when police were called to his Canberra home on October 31, 2017.

An inquest is examining whether Sgt Macklin’s use of the Taser contributed to the death of the 54-year-old, who died of cardiac arrest.

A transcript of a police radio call read out in court stated the pinky of Mr Caristo’s left hand had been “completely severed” and that he was possibly on drugs due to the presence of syringes on the floor.

Acting Sergeant Nathan Macklin (in uniform) leaves court after giving evidence at the inquest of Anthony Caristo.

One of the first officers on the scene stated it “looks like he’s chopped off one of his fingers and he’s a little bit out of it.”

When police arrived, the walls and floors of the Waramanga house were smeared with blood and several windows had been smashed.

Sgt Macklin told the inquest Mr Caristo had fixed him with a “thousand yard stare” as he tried to negotiate with him “but it was like talking to a brick wall”.

He decided to use the Taser when Mr Caristo appeared to stab himself in the leg with full force using “an overhead type motion”.

“I think that somewhat startled me …(and I thought) that he’s going to kill himself,” Sgt Macklin said.

“I knew I had to deploy the taser to stop him from doing this.

“Essentially I had two options; either Taser him to stop him from harming himself or I stand there and watch him.

“It was my view that we needed to do something immediately to prevent himself harming himself further and to get him some medical help.”

Anthony Caristo with his mum.

Sgt Macklin said capsicum spray would have made it impossible for ambulance officers to treat him quickly as it would “contaminate” the area.

The use of a baton would have been too dangerous for police as they would need to get close to Mr Caristo who was still armed with the knife.

“I knew the most likely use of force option that I could use that would both immobilise Mr Caristo and keep police relatively safe would be to deploy a Taser and then for police to force entry.”

Sgt Macklin had also been concerned for the safety of two junior officers should Mr Caristo barge through the front door with the knife, at which point they would “have almost no control over him whatsoever”.

Acting Sergeant Nathan Macklin said he deployed the Taser to prevent Anthony Caristo from inflicting further self harm.

The court heard Sgt Macklin was an experienced officer who had completed a program that allowed him to carry the weapon as well as being a taser instructor.

“Wholeheartedly the only reason we carry Tasers is to give us one more option to avoid the use of lethal force,” he said.

“It’s not in any way to give us an option to use more force. It gives us one more avenue that we may potentially have before having to fire a firearm.”

The inquest earlier heard an autopsy report by Professor Johan Duflou had found very high levels of methamphetamine in Mr Caristo’s blood and moderately advanced heart disease, The Canberra Times reported.

The report found that in the absence of other features, Professor Johan Duflou would be willing to state the cause of death as a drug overdose.

However, he concluded the cause of death to be cardiac arrest after using methamphetamine and being subjected to the electric shock of the Taser.

The inquest continues.

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