- Brandon Rich has been identified with the permission of his family.
Brandon Rich gasped for air as he laid underneath police, who moments before trying to detain him, called him a grub.
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His face turned blue as he dripped in sweat and officers thought "that's not good".
Then, he died.
Senior Constables Lindsey Kohlet and Stephen Bennett, as well as Inspector William Russell gave their testimonies in Dubbo's Coroner Court on November 21 and 22, 2023 in the inquest into the death of Indigenous man, Rich, while in police custody.
It was 6am when a general duties shift for Senior Constable Kohlet and Bennett began at Wellington Police Station on December 29, 2021.
Whilst attending an unrelated incident, Denise Rich - Mr Rich's grandmother - approached Senior Constable Kohlet and asked for her help at home.
Senior Constable Kohlet told the court she didn't ask any further questions because she was focused on making sure Senior Constable Bennett was okay with the other incident, but admitted it would've been better had she.
When the officers made their way to Denise Rich's home, they didn't plan or talk about what they were going to do due to not having any information.
Neither officer had body worn cameras strapped to their chests, with Senior Constable Kohlet telling the court she didn't think any of the cameras were working.
But, it was later found there were three functioning cameras at the Wellington station.
Senior Constable Bennett also didn't check because he hadn't done the relevant training, he told the court.
"We would know exactly what happened," State coroner Harriet Grahame said, should they each have worn cameras.
Senior Constable Kohlet told the court that when she said whose house they were going to, Senior Constable Bennett called Mr Rich a "grub".
State coroner Grahame asked if that word was "a common word for people known to police" and Senior Constable Kohlet said it was.
"Bit of a grub, in essence, means it's somebody who has been involved with drug-related or domestic incidents...it's just a common slang word others and I have used," Senior Constable Bennett said.
Defence counsel Nicholas Broadbent asked Senior Constable Kohlet whether hearing Mr Rich being called a "grub" played a part in the decisions she made on the day.
"It's said on the daily at the station, it's just a passing word, it had no impact on the way I interacted or my thoughts of Brandon," she said.
Upon arrival at Ms Rich's premises - while not wearing body worn cameras - the officers got out of their car and didn't think to take notes when they saw she was crying.
"I was too busy caring about her well-being to take notes," Senior Constable Kohlet said.
After some back and forth between Mr Rich and his grandmother, the police decided to take Mr Rich back to the Wellington station for the purpose of serving an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) on him.
Senior Constable Kohlet said it "never occurred" to her to take Ms Rich back to the station to make a statement.
Senior Constable Bennett told the court that it was best policy that Mr Rich be brought to the station to "ensure the safety" of the protected person and "mitigate" any retribution towards Ms Rich.
"Taking Denise to the station wasn't appropriate and I did not consider it to be an option," he said.
When Mr Rich refused to get into the police van and ran back inside the house, he closed the door on Senior Constable Bennett's leg.
Due to the pain, Senior Constable Bennett told the court he asked Senior Constable Kohlet to pepper spray Mr Rich, which she did twice, despite not knowing how many people were in the home.
"My leg could've been broken because he was 60 kilograms heavier than me," he said.
"I was trying to push the door open and asked Lindsey to spray him."
After the two sprays, Senior Constable Bennett also sprayed Mr Rich, knowing they would also have to go through the spray to chase after Mr Rich.
"This was the first time we had a confrontation with Brandon, we didn't know if he had armed himself and we thought it was likely a confrontation would occur," Senior Constable Kohlet said.
When Mr Rich barricaded himself in his grandmother's bathroom, Senior Constable Bennett shoulder charged the door to open it.
Entering the room, Mr Rich could be seen trying to escape out of the window.
Senior Constable Bennett told the court he grabbed Mr Rich's leg to stop him from going anywhere.
It was at this point the officers were asked if they believed holding him there and de-escalating the situation was one of the options available.
"Given time they might calm down, but I didn't think that would be the case with Brandon, given what we had experienced prior," Senior Constable Kholet said.
"We couldn't keep him in that position...it's not reasonable."
After Mr Rich was brought back through the window, he was able to evade police one more time before Senior Constable Bennett pinned him in a rugby tackle hold against a wall.
At this point the officers noticed Mr Rich was breathing heavily, which they put down to his weight and exercise exertion.
At this point, Inspector William Russell - also not wearing a body worn camera - entered the scene, immediately taking charge and helping Senior Constable Bennett pin Mr Rich to the wall in an effort to calm him down.
"He wasn't being aggressive, I was just trying to deescalate the situation, I was talking to him the entire time I was there," he said.
He told the court that they were in this position for around 10 minutes and he could hear over the radio that other officers were on the way.
I thought we did what we needed to do in these circumstances.
- Senior Constable Lindsey Kohlet
It was then that Detective Craig Fleeton arrived - after being sent to the wrong address - and took over from a "struggling" Senior Constable Kohlet.
In Detective Fleeton's original statement to police, which was played for the court, he said he noticed Mr Rich was extremely sweaty.
"He looked like he had been dumped in water, he was that wet," he said.
After a brief struggle, two officers and Inspector Russell pulled Mr Rich's legs out from under him so he slid to the ground.
Senior Constable Bennett told the court Mr Rich was kicking out, so he grabbed his baton and struck him a number of times.
Detective Fleeton said the baton strikes were like "chicken hits" and weren't doing anything, so he took the baton from his fellow officer.
After 20 seconds on the ground, Senior Constable Bennett said he heard Mr Rich say he couldn't breathe.
But, two of the officers continued pulling Mr Rich in different directions in order to handcuff him.
Senior Constable Kohlet said she noticed a change in Brandon's face colour and told the officers to get the cuffs off.
"I saw his face and he looked blue and I thought f--k that's not good," Detective Fleeton said.
After the cuffs came off, Detective Fleeton began chest compressions, before Mr Rich was taken to Wellington Hospital where he died.
Looking back on the incident, Senior Constable Kohlet said she didn't know what more they could've done, aside from some more communication.
"I thought we did what we needed to do in these circumstances," she said.