Indigenous man dies in hospital after being tasered by police in Gunnedah

An Indigenous man died on Thursday after being pepper-sprayed and tasered by police in the NSW country town of Gunnedah.

Gunnedah Police Station. Picture: Nathan Edwards

An Indigenous man died on Thursday after being pepper-sprayed and tasered by police in the NSW country town of Gunnedah.

The 27-year-old allegedly became aggressive with police at a home on Herbert St, after officers were called to the scene due to concerns about his behaviour.

A scuffle commenced and the officers used pepper spray and a taser to detain the man, before he eventually lost consciousness.

Police performed CPR on him at the scene, before he was taken by ambulance to the Gunnedah Hospital where he died shortly after.

Anger over the incident has surfaced on social media, with people close to the man raising questions about the nature of the incident.

“Words can nowhere near explain the pain, the hurt, the confusion!” the man’s partner and mother of his child wrote in a Facebook tribute.

“My heart is so broken. We never get to hear your voice, your laugh, your smartarse comments.”

His cousin said his “head was in shambles” upon hearing about the death, and that he understood his cousin was undergoing a “psychotic episode” at the time of the incident.

“I’ll never understand why the only alternative police have is to harm someone who’s clearly in mental distress,” he wrote on Twitter.

A female police officer was also taken to hospital to be treated for a bite wound on her right arm, and an injured left knee.

The State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The investigation will also be subject to independent review.