Collin Burling was remembered by his partner Taite Collins and friends at a moving memorial on July 15 at Daniel Solander Tower in Waterloo.
Burling died last year on July 15 at 2.14am, after NSW Police assaulted and restrained him. The 45-year old had called firefighters because of a gas leak. They decided he was suffering a mental health episode and they called for either an ambulance or police.
Taite had been filming the incident from an apartment above. He told Green Left that Burling had been homeless from the age of 15 and that his Waterloo apartment was “his first secure house”.
“He was bright, funny, energetic and very fit. He loved skateboarding and did everything for our two dogs. We were both worried about the gas smell. We’d get bad headaches and both he and I would vomit. He had to open the front door and that was hard because he didn’t feel safe.”
Taite said police did a background check on Burling, cleared him and then took him to sit in the ambulance where they told him he was in a drug psychosis. Burling told police he wasn’t, that he feared for his life and wanted to go back to his apartment but police wouldn’t let him leave.
Taite said his partner “begged to speak to a more senior officer, but they said no and told him to get out. He did and, with his arms behind his back, they threw him face down into the concrete.
“Four police were on his back and two at his throat.”
While Burling was crying out “I can’t breathe” and begging them to stop, police covered him with a white sheet — restricting his vision and that of witnesses. He suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
“I had cops beat on my door and threaten to kill me after they killed Collin.” He said police had tampered with the video footage he had on his phone and that Homes NSW dumped all of Burlings’s possessions into a skip. “I was trying to salvage some of our joint belongings, a photo of ourselves, for example.”
Taite said he has tried to get a transfer away from Waterloo, because of the painful memories, but Homes NSW has ignored his request. “No-one from any government department has reached out to help me in any way … every department that has reached out has re-traumatised me.” He said the gas leak continues and other tenants are now complaining.
Taite and Judy Deacon, the mother of Jesse Deacon, who was also killed in custody in a public housing estate in 2023, are organising a rally on July 18 at 1pm at Sydney Town Hall to remember their loved ones and demand change.
They are calling for justice, restitution and compensation for the families of those who have died in custody. They want police and emergency services to be made accountable. Specifically, they say a government-funded mental health-first responder must replace police and a mental health response hotline be set up.
[Rachel Evans is a public housing campaigner and is running for Socialist Alliance in the seat of Heffron in the NSW elections.]