‘Send in the army': Fury over stabbing death of beloved Darwin shopkeeper as crime spins out of control
Furious locals have called for the army to be deployed to Darwin to crack down on out-of-control violent crime following the alleged stabbing murder of a beloved elderly shopkeeper.
Northern Territory Police have arrested an 18-year-old man over the death of Linford Feick, 71, who ran the Friendly Grocer store in Nightcliff in the city's north.
Just after 5pm on Wednesday, police allege Mr Feick caught the man stealing and demanded the items be returned. He allegedly pulled out and knife and stabbed the shop owner, before fleeing the scene on a bicycle.
Horrified customers and staff rushed to Mr Feick's aid and provided CPR, but his injuries were too severe. Emergency services arrived within 10 minutes, but he could not be revived and was pronounced dead.
Police swarmed the scene and launched a manhunt. Officers cordoned off the area and obtained CCTV footage from the shop and surrounding businesses.
Alleged killer was out on bail
At about 12.35am, the alleged stabber handed himself in at Palmerston Police Station. Charges are yet to be laid.
The man was out on bail for other offences at the time but was not fitted with an ankle monitor. The Australian reports he had been banned from entering Darwin.
Territory politician Andrew Mackay, the member for Goyder, confirmed the man was supposed to be restricted to a remote community as part of his bail conditions.
'I will be finding out what I can in relation to why this alleged offender was on bail and what other bail conditions might have been in place,' Mr Mackay said.
NT Police have not commented on the circumstances surrounding the man's bail.
Family left devastated
Mr Feick's devastated wife Margaret said her life had been shattered by the death of her 'beautiful husband of 51 years'.
'I am too broken to go to sleep,' Ms Feick wrote in an emotional Facebook message in the early hours of Thursday. 'My beautiful husband was stolen from me.'
'Linford worked so sincerely to maintain the community vibe with smiles, trust and humanity.
'A beautiful man, a true gentleman, and my soulmate. Gone forever.'
Their son Ben told The Australian that crime had been 'a reality to us for a long time' and the tragedy was 'out worst nightmare come true'.
'He was a great man, he was well loved, we're so appreciative of the community outreach,' he told the newspaper.
Kat McNamara, the local member for Nightcliff, said she was 'utterly heartbroken' by the news and had spent the night at the scene to comfort staff and shoppers.
'Everybody should have the right to go to work and come home safely to their families,' Ms McNamara said in a statement.
'This horrific act of violence has no place in our community.'
Epidemic of violent crime
The Top End has been battling violent crime, particularly involving youth offenders, for years and Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro campaigned on a zero-tolerance platform ahead of the Country Liberal Party's election win last year.
Late last night, Ms Finocchiaro shared a brief video to social media responding to the 'tragic loss of life'.
'It is devastating that we are at this point again,' she said. Our focus right now is on the welfare of the family.
'Every Territorian knows that this is not OK. We reinforce our commitment that everything is on the table. The police and I will have more to say as more information unfolds.'
Action for Alice founder Darren Clark, an anti-crime campaigner based in Alice Springs, another NT region in the grips of a crime epidemic, slammed the response.
'Why wasn't it already on the table?' Mr Clark said.
'Darwin is seriously bad at the moment. This incident happened across from a police station that is not staffed by police. A family is devastated, their whole world changed forever.
'Why do we always have to wait until a tragic event to shake our leaders up? Simply not good enough.'
Ana Aitcheson, who runs the domestic violence shelter Dawn House, said the increase in violent knife crime across the Territory was out of control.
'Everybody's got a machete or a knife or scissors on them,' Ms Aitcheson told The Australian.
'The amount of stabbings up here, that's increasing, knife violence it's just wild.'
A service station employee near the Friendly Grocer store told the NT News yesterday: 'It's not safe here. A few months ago, someone else was stabbed here too.'
Federal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the opposition's spokesperson for Indigenous Affairs, said the alleged act of 'senseless and violent behaviour is shocking and utterly condemnable'.
'We must do everything we can to stamp out this abhorrent behaviour,' Senator Price said.
Earlier this year, Friendly Grocer was part of a group of local businesses to voice concern about the growing crime problem in the suburb.
Despite a new police station recently opening just across the road, it was poorly staffed and locals said the number of officers visible in the area had actually reduced.
'Safety hasn't changed — if anything I reckon it's got worse,' a Friendly Grocer staffer said at the time.
'There used to be a foot patrol that went around — they really made it a safer place.'
Laurie Zio, the member for Fannie Bay, said she was 'furious and devastated' by the latest 'senseless act [of] violence'.
'When did we become a place that someone caught shoplifting responds with outright murder?' Ms Zio said.
'Our entire community is shaken, again … and rightfully so. Everyone has the right to be so, so angry. I have no words, but my thoughts are with his family, his loved ones, and everyone in our community who is reeling from this.'
The death comes two years after bottle shop worker Declark Laverty was murdered at the Airport Tavern BWS in Darwin's north by Keith Kerinauia, who was 19.
Kerinauia had been bailed for aggravated assault and robbery charges just weeks prior. He is currently serving 20 years behind bars for the fatal stabbing.
Fed-up locals vent fury
Mr Feick's shocking death has prompted a flood of anger across social media from frustrated locals who say drastic measures are needed to tackle out-of-control violence.
'Bring in the army,' one wrote.
'So much for the government cracking down on crime,' another said. 'Truly enough is enough.'
A woman wrote that Darwin was no longer a safe place to raise a family, recounting multiple instances experienced or witnessed by her children.
'My daughter frequents that store, my son witnessed the stabbings at Casuarina two weeks ago, there was a stabbing murder in our suburb three weeks ago. My other son at eight-years-old old asked me: 'Is that where the man was stabbed to death?
'A few years ago, someone jumped my kids' school fence, threatened students, threatened to come back, which forced the primary school next door into a lockdown for almost two hours which was EXTREMELY traumatic for these kids.
'What does it take to cross the threshold into real action? This is not what I want for my family.'
One local noted: 'So much for the government cracking down on crime. Truly enough is enough.'
'Someone tell me again how the NT justice system is working to prevent crime, I'm clearly confused,' another said.
Many slammed the fact that the alleged killer was out on bail – a frequent pattern involved perpetrators of violent crime.
'No consequences for their crimes so they just keep doing it,' one wrote.
'No respect for anyone or anything and when they are jailed [it's] usually only half of what they deserve.'
Leader's disappearing video
Hours before the alleged murder, the Chief Minister took to social media to share a glowing video touting her government's tough stance on crime.
'Crime statistics came out last week and we're seeing some really good signs,' she said.
But shortly after news broke of the stabbing, Ms Finocchiaro deleted the clip.
Caleb Burke, a Darwin-based union organiser and critic of the Country Liberal Party, slammed the act.
'This is the same Lia Finocchiaro who screamed at [former Labor Chief Minister] Eva Lawler every day about crime. Who said only the CLP could fix it. Who promised action, certainty and security.
'You wanted the job, Lia. Now you've got it. You were loud when it suited you, but silent when it counts.'
This morning, Ms Finocchiaro issued a statement conceding locals were fed up with crime.
'People have a right to be angry, heartbroken, frustrated, disappointed, questioning why this is happening when it will stop, and all of those feelings are absolutely valid,' she said.
'I want everyone to support each other. Today, there is going to be a wide range of emotions by our entire community right across the Northern Territory, and people's emotions will undoubtedly change over the course of the day as well.
'And so, we stand strong together in solidarity around the family, the friends, the immediate community that's grieving, and the broader Northern Territory community who grieve with them and share their pain.
'We stand together and say enough is enough. And I want to reinforce our commitment to Territorians that everything is on the table, and we will continue to do whatever it takes to make the Territory safe.'
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During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, "Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He's classified them as "un-American" and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression. During last year's election campaign, he promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump's "political enemies" as "echoing Hitler, Mussolini". In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about "sanctuary cities", such as Los Angeles. He has characterised them as lawless havens for his political enemies and places that have been "invaded" by immigrants. As anyone who has ever visited these places knows, that is not true. It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as "disgracing our country", there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology. That opposition has coalesced in recent weeks around the activities of ICE agents, in particular. These agents, wearing masks to conceal their identities, have been arbitrarily detaining people, including US citizens and children, and disappearing people off the streets. They have also arrested caregivers, leaving children alone. As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic during the first iteration of Trump in America, "the cruelty is the point". The Trump administration's mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out. 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Trump is, for the moment, unconstrained. Asked overnight what the bar is for deploying the Marines against protesters, Trump responded: "the bar is what I think it is". As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently observed:" We should treat Trump and his openly authoritarian administration as a failure, not just of our party system or our legal system, but of our Constitution and its ability to meaningfully constrain a destructive and system-threatening force in our political life." While the situation in Los Angeles is unpredictable, it must be understood in the broader context of the active, violent threat the Trump administration poses to the US. As we watch, American democracy teeters on the brink. This article was updated on June 9, 2025 to correct information about Rodney King. "You just [expletive] shot the reporter!" Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration's mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet. Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same "non-lethal" ammunition. The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as "a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States". He then deployed the National Guard. As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US. In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the severe beating of a Black man, Rodney King. Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people. During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, "Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He's classified them as "un-American" and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression. During last year's election campaign, he promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump's "political enemies" as "echoing Hitler, Mussolini". In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about "sanctuary cities", such as Los Angeles. He has characterised them as lawless havens for his political enemies and places that have been "invaded" by immigrants. As anyone who has ever visited these places knows, that is not true. It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as "disgracing our country", there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology. That opposition has coalesced in recent weeks around the activities of ICE agents, in particular. These agents, wearing masks to conceal their identities, have been arbitrarily detaining people, including US citizens and children, and disappearing people off the streets. They have also arrested caregivers, leaving children alone. As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic during the first iteration of Trump in America, "the cruelty is the point". The Trump administration's mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out. In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of 10 million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a key architect of the mass deportations program and a man described by a former adviser as "Waffen SS", called the protests "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States". Trump himself also described protesters as "violent, insurrectionist mobs". Nowhere does the presidential memo deploying the National Guard name the specific location of the protests. This, and the extreme language coming out of the administration, suggests it is laying the groundwork for further escalation. The administration could be leaving space to deploy the National Guard in other places and invoke the Insurrection Act. Incidents involving the deployment of the National Guard are rare, though politically cataclysmic. It is rarer still for the National Guard to be deployed against the wishes of a democratically elected leader of a state, as Trump has done in California. This deployment comes at a time of crisis for US democracy more broadly. Trump's longstanding attacks against independent media - what he describes as "fake news" - are escalating. There is a reason that during the current protests, a law enforcement officer appeared so comfortable targeting a journalist, on camera. The Trump administration is also actively targeting independent institutions such as Harvard and Columbia universities. It is also targeting and undermining judges and reducing the power of independent courts to enforce the rule of law. Under Trump, the federal government and its state-based allies are targeting and undermining the rights of minority groups - policing the bodies of trans people, targeting reproductive rights, and beginning the process of undoing the Civil Rights Act. Trump is, for the moment, unconstrained. Asked overnight what the bar is for deploying the Marines against protesters, Trump responded: "the bar is what I think it is". 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