Vic: Psychiatric patient dies after altercation with police

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-1998
Vic: Psychiatric patient dies after altercation with police

By Heather Gallagher

MELBOURNE, Dec 7 AAP - A psychiatric patient involved in a fight with police last week has
died in hospital.

Gregory Couper, 44, who was a resident at The Avenue supported residential service in
Melbournes inner-east, died yesterday morning at the Alfred Hospital, a hospital spokesman
said.

Police have begun an internal investigation into the actions of four police officers who
attended the Windsor home following an altercation between Mr Couper and staff last Wednesday.

"Preliminary results indicate that the man suffered a heart attack although it is up to the
coroner to determine the exact cause," a police spokesman said today.

Speaking from The Avenue supported residential service today, manager Greg Lane said Mr
Couper was a schizophrenic who had lived at the home for nine years.

"That morning (on the day of the altercation) he gave my wife chocolates and my daughter a
porcelain doll," he said.

"Hes not your classic deinstitutionalised nutter with a brick or a knife or whatever
running at police."

He said while the Crisis Assessment Team (CAT) had been called for help, they were busy
dealing with a violent person in another suburb.

"People (in the home) would hear him as being loud and take that as being aggressive - he
was just trying to get a message across that no-one could understand," he said.

Mr Lane said Mr Couper had been in an eight-year relationship with a woman at the home who
described him as a "loving and gentle man".

He had looked to Mr Lane as a second father and called him Pop.

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