Post by Cullyn Of Cerrmor on Dec 28, 2008 14:03:23 GMT 9.5
'I was being attacked but the police shot me'
Leesha McKenny | December 28, 2008
Suzie Banderi, a police shooting victim.
Photo: Janie Barrett
A WOMAN who was shot by police in a unit block is seeking money and an apology from those she thought had been sent to protect her.
Suzie Banderi, 48, claims she was initially relieved when she saw officers had been called out to the North Parramatta address where a man was allegedly assaulting her in the early hours of December 21.
"I believe he would have killed me," she said. "I was in the foetal position where he was eye-gouging me and ear-gouging me. Then I saw the police torches coming and I thought 'Oh good, I'm safe'." Instead, the mother of two has a bullet wound to the chest and another police bullet lodged in her spine after it passed through her liver. Doctors have told Ms Banderi it might be too dangerous to remove the bullet.
"My right leg is gone, I can't feel it," she said. "How [the other bullet] missed my vital organs, I don't know." Friends said Ms Banderi was "upset and angry" at police, and would be seeking financial compensation from the force and "probably an apology" from the officers involved.
Police alleged Ms Banderi threatened officers with a knife and refused to surrender the weapon after they arrived at the Iron Street units after neighbours reported a disturbance. When Ms Banderi lunged at police, they alleged, a junior female officer fired two shots.
It Ms Banderi claims that she wasn't armed with a knife, but a cocktail fork she had taken as protection as she walked an elderly, sight-impaired neighbour home after watching carols on television.
On her way back, Ms Banderi had encountered a 23-year-old champion kick boxer arguing on a public phone.
She said he demanded to know what she was looking at. He said he followed her to ask her why she had poked him with a fork.
Anne McCabe, 73, a resident who had just returned home from a Christmas party, said she heard a commotion on the drive leading to the units. She went out to her balcony and claims that she the man kicking Ms Banderi in the stomach and groin before Ms Banderi sought refuge in her foyer.
"He was kicking the hell out of her, neighbours were yelling at him to stop," Mrs McCabe said. "Immediately I came inside and opened my front door wide open. They were on my landing, heads pointed to the opposite units. He was choking, strangling her and I am standing over them yelling and yelling."
The kick boxer denied he had assaulted Ms Banderi and said he was trying to subdue her and that he had her under control when police arrived and sprayed them both with capsicum spray.
He also denied claims that she had threatened and lunged at police, and instead asserted that she was trying to stand up and run away when the officer fired the shots.
"When I saw the police I ran towards them for help, to help me," Ms Banderi said. "And as I ran towards them she shot me, point blank."
Ms Banderi said she initially thought she had been tasered, but realised she had been shot when she saw the bullet casing next to her on the ground.
"I thought he'd shot me, I didn't think it was the coppers," she said.
Under close observation in Westmead Hospital, Ms Banderi said she had been told her attacker had since fled to Queensland without charge, while she has been depicted as a "knife-wielding maniac" by police.
"They didn't even get a DNA sample from him, they got one from me," she said.
A police spokesman said no comment would be made until the critical incident team finished its investigations into the shooting.
But for Mrs McCabe, who said she was the prime witness and her unit the crime scene, the case was simple. In her view, when the police officer opened fire in her tiny foyer - with a bullet ricocheting into her unit to miss her by inches - they shot the wrong person.
"A woman shouted out and I could hear her shouting out 'You shot the bloody victim'," she said.
"And that's in my formal statement.
"The policewoman obviously shot in panic, she shot the wrong person."
A neighbour of Ms Banderi, who wished not to be named, said that although Ms Banderi did suffer from bipolar disorder and might have had something to drink that night, she was never violent in the neighbourhood.
Ms McCabe said it was important that the real story was made public.
"They have let him go, they're treating him like the victim," she said.
"They're treating her like the attacker. They said she came at them with a knife. She barely escaped with her life. That woman was the victim and I've got to assert that."
Source: The Sun-Herald
I have a feeling that more than one person is distorting the truth in this story
Leesha McKenny | December 28, 2008
Suzie Banderi, a police shooting victim.
Photo: Janie Barrett
A WOMAN who was shot by police in a unit block is seeking money and an apology from those she thought had been sent to protect her.
Suzie Banderi, 48, claims she was initially relieved when she saw officers had been called out to the North Parramatta address where a man was allegedly assaulting her in the early hours of December 21.
"I believe he would have killed me," she said. "I was in the foetal position where he was eye-gouging me and ear-gouging me. Then I saw the police torches coming and I thought 'Oh good, I'm safe'." Instead, the mother of two has a bullet wound to the chest and another police bullet lodged in her spine after it passed through her liver. Doctors have told Ms Banderi it might be too dangerous to remove the bullet.
"My right leg is gone, I can't feel it," she said. "How [the other bullet] missed my vital organs, I don't know." Friends said Ms Banderi was "upset and angry" at police, and would be seeking financial compensation from the force and "probably an apology" from the officers involved.
Police alleged Ms Banderi threatened officers with a knife and refused to surrender the weapon after they arrived at the Iron Street units after neighbours reported a disturbance. When Ms Banderi lunged at police, they alleged, a junior female officer fired two shots.
It Ms Banderi claims that she wasn't armed with a knife, but a cocktail fork she had taken as protection as she walked an elderly, sight-impaired neighbour home after watching carols on television.
On her way back, Ms Banderi had encountered a 23-year-old champion kick boxer arguing on a public phone.
She said he demanded to know what she was looking at. He said he followed her to ask her why she had poked him with a fork.
Anne McCabe, 73, a resident who had just returned home from a Christmas party, said she heard a commotion on the drive leading to the units. She went out to her balcony and claims that she the man kicking Ms Banderi in the stomach and groin before Ms Banderi sought refuge in her foyer.
"He was kicking the hell out of her, neighbours were yelling at him to stop," Mrs McCabe said. "Immediately I came inside and opened my front door wide open. They were on my landing, heads pointed to the opposite units. He was choking, strangling her and I am standing over them yelling and yelling."
The kick boxer denied he had assaulted Ms Banderi and said he was trying to subdue her and that he had her under control when police arrived and sprayed them both with capsicum spray.
He also denied claims that she had threatened and lunged at police, and instead asserted that she was trying to stand up and run away when the officer fired the shots.
"When I saw the police I ran towards them for help, to help me," Ms Banderi said. "And as I ran towards them she shot me, point blank."
Ms Banderi said she initially thought she had been tasered, but realised she had been shot when she saw the bullet casing next to her on the ground.
"I thought he'd shot me, I didn't think it was the coppers," she said.
Under close observation in Westmead Hospital, Ms Banderi said she had been told her attacker had since fled to Queensland without charge, while she has been depicted as a "knife-wielding maniac" by police.
"They didn't even get a DNA sample from him, they got one from me," she said.
A police spokesman said no comment would be made until the critical incident team finished its investigations into the shooting.
But for Mrs McCabe, who said she was the prime witness and her unit the crime scene, the case was simple. In her view, when the police officer opened fire in her tiny foyer - with a bullet ricocheting into her unit to miss her by inches - they shot the wrong person.
"A woman shouted out and I could hear her shouting out 'You shot the bloody victim'," she said.
"And that's in my formal statement.
"The policewoman obviously shot in panic, she shot the wrong person."
A neighbour of Ms Banderi, who wished not to be named, said that although Ms Banderi did suffer from bipolar disorder and might have had something to drink that night, she was never violent in the neighbourhood.
Ms McCabe said it was important that the real story was made public.
"They have let him go, they're treating him like the victim," she said.
"They're treating her like the attacker. They said she came at them with a knife. She barely escaped with her life. That woman was the victim and I've got to assert that."
Source: The Sun-Herald
I have a feeling that more than one person is distorting the truth in this story