Gay Sydney Man Dies After Being Restrained By Police During Welfare Check

A gay man has died after being restrained by police during a mental health-related welfare check in inner Sydney.

An ambulance was called to the Pitt St apartment complex at 2:14am on Tuesday, where they found Collin Burling, 45, suffering an apparent mental health episode.

Paramedics made an “urgent request” to police, who attended the scene. Police said Burling was cooperative as emergency services helped him into the ambulance, but suddenly became distressed, with police handcuffing him so he could be sedated.

Footage taken by Burling’s partner, Taite Collins, shows four police officers pinning him to the ground, as he calls for help and tells police he was unable to breathe.

“I’m not a threat,” Burling says. “Help me.”

Police hung a privacy blanket over the 45-year-old as paramedics administered first aid.

“I’m unaware if he actually was sedated … at this point in time, but shortly thereafter, that male has gone into cardiac arrest,” Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Burling was pronounced dead upon arrival to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

“I knew he had passed before they even left … It was absolutely appalling behaviour by the police. … It shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Collins said.

“He was a beautiful man. He’s a big, burly bloke, but he’s got a heart of gold.”

Urgent calls for first responder reform

The incident has highlighted inadequate and deadly police response during welfare checks on vulnerable people.

Last week, two NSW Police officers pleaded guilty to using unlawful force against a naked woman suffering a mental health episode during a welfare check in Western Sydney in 2023.

Bodyworn camera and CCTV footage captured the officers’ increasingly violent assault against the vulnerable woman, who was kicked twice in the head, punched, and dragged by her hair. She was also pepper sprayed into her face, vagina, and on her grazed back.

Greens MP and Spokesperson for Justice, Sue Higginson, is calling for NSW Police to undertake mandatory comprehensive training in mental health responses, and for more investment in alternative first-responders for mental health cases.

“People should be able to call for help in their hour of need and not risk being killed by NSW Police,” she said.

“Mr Burling was suffering, he was vulnerable, he called for help, it was his hour of need and the police response was appalling. They failed him, his partner, his loved ones and all of us,

Higginson says more people will continue to die if the Labor Government fails to act.

“Everyone knows that the police escalate situations where mental health is concerned, but still the Police Minister and the Premier are refusing to commit to meaningful reform. Police should not be first responders and when they are called as second responders they should not be clad with weapons of pain and death.

“The Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley know the evidence, the time for action is now.”

Police said on Tuesday that a critical incident investigation team from the State Crime Commands Homicide Squad will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The investigation will also be subject of an independent review by the Professional Standards Command, overseen by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.