A 29-year-old Aboriginal woman who was fatally shot by a West Australian police officer accused of murder foreshadowed that she was going to die that day, a Supreme Court jury has heard.

The first class constable, whose name has been suppressed for legal reasons, denies murdering the woman, who her family asked to be referred to as ‘JC’, when he fired his gun in the regional town of Geraldton, 415 kilometres north of Perth, on September 17, 2019.

Minutes into the start of the trial on Tuesday, the jury was shown confronting footage of JC’s last moments standing on a residential street in the Geraldton suburb of Rangeway, surrounded by eight police officers – three of which were on foot.

In her opening address, Director of Public Prosecutions Amanda Forrester SC told the jury that it was not in dispute that the accused police officer shot her in the abdomen.

She said JC had mental health and substance abuse issues that included being addicted to methamphetamine, which kept her from having custody of her young son.

In the days leading up to her death, JC had been released from prison to stay with relatives in the Mid-West regional town and “was struggling”, telling a triple-0 operator that was going to kill herself.

She was taken to the local hospital for a psychiatric assessment, where she continued to have angry outbursts and behavioural issues but was discharged on September 13.

In the following days, JC purchased drugs and stole alcohol before seeking help from a local community centre, asking to go home to her foster mother Anne Jones, who cared for her son and lived in Mullewa, an hour bus ride east of Geraldton.

After speaking to Ms Jones, she seemed a lot calmer and the centre worker planned to testify that JC did not appear to be under the influence of any substance, Ms Forester told the court.