22 year old with Asperger's shot dead in Australia

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THE knife-wielding woman shot dead by police yesterday outside a Hungry Jack’s outlet had Asperger’s syndrome.

Courtney Topic, 22, was said to be acting like a “zombie” before police opened fire, and apparently ignored police calls to drop her weapon.

The Daily Telegraph now reports the young woman had been diagnosed with Asperger’s, a condition related to autism that can mean sufferers have difficulty relating to other and can have trouble understanding instructions.

Ms Topic was shot in the chest after she was seen wandering in and out of traffic brandishing a large knife in the Sydney suburb of West Hoxton about 11.45am yesterday.

Witness Robert Duncan from Penrith said the young woman, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and casually sipping from a takeaway cup, ignored police calls to drop her weapon, reports.

“The woman then started moving towards them in a zombie like fashion and the police kept their guns on her and kept moving back, she came towards them wielding and swinging a knife,” Mr Duncan said.

“The woman came so close to one of the officers that he was going to be stabbed or had been stabbed and then I heard a pop sound and she went to the ground.

“She could not have been tackled, the way she was running and swinging the knife it would have been ­impossible to get an arm or leg shot on her … she just kept coming as if she was possessed.”

While police said the constable fired only one shot, other witnesses claim two were fired after the woman lunged at officers.

“We heard police talking to her trying to get her to put her weapon down,” witness Alan Sobbi told AAP.

“Then she moved forward and then ‘bang, bang’, two shots were fired. The police went over to help her, to revive her.”

Resident Nicole Maher heard what sounded like two gunshots and rushed down to the scene.

“I know there is bad in the world but in the end, the young girl didn’t even get a chance to make up for her wrong,” she said.

A critical incident team from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad and assisted by investigators from South West Metropolitan Region are investigating.

Tragic. There's a thread in General too:
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Thanks for sharing OP. This happened not far from my work. This clearly shouldn't have be an autism issue. It's a police response issue, whether they were dealing with autism, schizophrenia or whatever. There had to have been more they could have done before pulling a trigger. I think there was only one shot too. He obviously went for center mass, probably hit her heart. Ridiculous.