Latest news with #NTPolice
Daily Mail
a day ago
- General
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Major update after frantic search was launched for man feared to have been eaten by crocodiles
The body of a man last seen jumping off a bridge into croc-infested waters has been recovered following an extensive search and rescue operation in the Darwin Harbour. Local man Brendan, 55, disappeared after jumping from the Channel Island Bridge. Police say he was reportedly with workmates when he jumped off the bridge into the water at 9:42pm on Friday. They said he was initially laughing but suddenly began drifting away. There were strong tidal currents and Brendan appeared to struggle before disappearing from view. Despite efforts from his friends to encourage him back to shore, Brendon was last seen in the middle of the channel, heading toward Darwin City. The search and rescue operation commenced after his friends lost sight of him and continued until the early hours of Saturday morning. NT Police Search and Rescue Section, a Careflight helicopter and the Port Authority assisted in the search. The coordinated effort included two helicopters, two NT Police vessels, Surf Life Saving crews, NT Emergency Service volunteers, Crocodile Management teams, and NT Police officers conducting foot patrols along nearby coastlines. His body was sighted in the water near East Arm Wharf about 11.30am on Saturday. NT Police said the body matches the description of an individual who was last seen entering the water about 9:40pm on Friday. Formal identification is yet to be completed. Last year, authorities launched a rescue operation on Channel Island, after he became stuck in the mangroves. Police received reports a man had become trapped in the mangroves, approximately 700metres from the nearest main road. Due to the shallow water levels, rescue crews were unable to reach him by boat. Instead, officers deployed a jet ski to navigate the difficult terrain and were able to reach the man and bring him to shore. Upon recovery, the man was reportedly disoriented and showing signs of delirium, believed to be the result of extreme dehydration. He was immediately transported to Royal Darwin Hospital for medical treatment.
News.com.au
a day ago
- General
- News.com.au
Man missing after jumping off Channel Island Bridge with mates on Friday night
A frantic search is underway for a 55-year-old man who went missing after jumping into the water near Channel Island. Brendon Doherty voluntarily jumped off Channel Island Bridge with work friends on Friday night, and was laughing and active in the water before drifting away. Police received a report at 9.42pm that Mr Doherty was unable to swim back to shore, despite his friends' attempts to encourage him. He was last seen in the middle of the channel, drifting toward Darwin City in strong tidal currents. Witnesses observed him for close to two minutes before losing sight of him. Mr Doherty was last seen wearing shorts, a dark shirt, and steel cap boots. NT Police Search and Rescue deployed and did an extensive search of the Middle Arm area overnight. Police are urging anyone who may witness a man floating or along the shore in the harbour to provide aid and call triple-0 immediately.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Reconciliation Week feels particularly hollow after another death in custody
In Australia's centre, a young Aboriginal man is held down by police officers in plain clothes on the floor of the confectionary aisle in Coles in Alice Springs. There is much we don't know, and may never know, but several important pieces of information are apparent. Kumanjayi White, a vulnerable young Warlpiri man with a disability, is dead in Reconciliation Week, at 24 years of age. Another seismic trauma for a family already in agony. NT Police say Kumanjayi White had put items down the front of his clothing at Coles, when he was confronted by a security guard on Tuesday. In a town where impoverished Aboriginal people live hand-to-mouth, Indigenous disability advocates have questioned whether he was hungry, and how a young man on the NDIS could have ended up dead on the floor of a supermarket. Damian Griffis from the First Peoples Disability Network says his death is devastating. "We're talking about some of the most vulnerable people in Australian society. "First Nations people with disability experience intersectional discrimination based on race and ableism, and too often they are treated as criminals when they should be supported." Police will conduct an investigation into his death. The Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy suggested she'd like to see a probe take place independently — NT Police "respectfully" told the minister it didn't want the inquiry to go to an external body. The relationship between NT Police and Warlpiri elders was already shattered after the high-profile death of Kumanjayi Walker, a 19-year-old man who was shot dead in Yuendumu in 2019. Now the community has another young man to mourn. The NT coroner was due to hand down her findings of the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker in 10 days. It has been one of the longest-running coronial investigations in Australian history, with a focus on systemic racism in the police force. Kumanjayi White's grandfather, the well-known elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, described his community's devastation at seeing his "jaja" (grandson) become another Aboriginal man to die in custody. Add his name to the list of hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody in the past three decades. Young men and women with unrealised dreams and loved ones left behind. Frequently these mob have been in and out of the care of the state since birth, often parented by cold, hard systems which re-traumatise the grandchildren of survivors of the Stolen Generations and the assimilation era. The cases are each unique and tragic in their own way: they have been shot in the dead of night, ignored while they screamed out in pain, dismissed by medical staff, restrained and left unsupervised in jail cells. The pipeline from cells for teenagers to prisons for grown men is often pre-determined. On an average day in Queensland, 70 per cent of young people in prison are Aboriginal. In the NT, prisons are almost exclusively full of blackfellas. This week, Yawuru elder and the former Labor senator Pat Dodson decried Australia's Aboriginal youth justice crisis as an ongoing genocide and an "embarrassing sore". He knows better than anyone what has led to so many Indigenous people coming into contact with police and prisons. A commissioner for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, he played a role in the seminal investigation which found "a familiar pattern of state intervention into and control of Aboriginal lives." The commission meticulously examined the stories of the Indigenous people who had died, finding they had lived life pushed to the margins, and, crucially, had come into contact with police and prisons frequently. From 1991 until now, we're in the sorry and shameful position of seeing hundreds more die in similar situations. Almost 35 years on, not one single government has felt compelled to properly reckon with the Black deaths inquiry and its broad recommendations to revolutionise the way in which First Nations people are treated in this country. Police reform would be a start. No state or territory leader has dared question whether police forces — with barely any Indigenous officers in their ranks — are capable of properly serving First Nations people who live with high levels of trauma. The South Australian Police Commissioner had the courage this week to admit that police are ill-equipped to attend mental health crises. Indigenous people often live with a disability, a fear and lack of trust in authorities, mental health conditions and a history of institutionalisation. What's the media's role in drawing attention to deaths in custody? This man's death has barely raised an eyebrow in many publications. Crime waves plaster front pages and lead stories on TV news bulletins leading to swift policy change from state and territory governments — new prisons, weapons bans, bail laws, 'Adult Crime, Adult Time'. What about the Black victims of the residual effects of mass human rights abuses gone by? They cannot expect detailed media coverage, seismic policy change or bold leadership. It's never come. The blueprints are there, and so are the well-publicised governmental agreements to do better. It's two steps forward and two steps back. In New South Wales, for example, the Minns government signed a major agreement to close the gap, but it also toughened bail laws to the despair of the Aboriginal Legal Service. The ALS says Aboriginal children are now being locked up in remand for minor crimes that would never attract jail sentences. Ask Yorta Yorta and Ngarrindjeri lawyer Nerita Waight, the Chief Executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, why justice reform for Indigenous people has never come and her answer is, "because it's extremely tough work to implement and sell." "That's a long process, not a quick process. Saying you're going to change bail laws, putting more investment into prisons, those are easy decisions, quick fixes." Every single day, dozens of Aboriginal people are arrested in Victoria alone. "We're seeing people picked up because they're stealing food because they can't put food on the table. They're treating mental illness through substance abuse because there's no adequate mental health support. "We're talking [about] people with intellectual disabilities," Nerita tells me. The problems that have led to vast numbers of deaths are so complex, so multifaceted, that it is not credible to expect a few terms of government to solve them. Yet it's almost 35 years since the Royal Commission into Black deaths in custody, and the country is so far behind, something must change. Off the back of a highly charged referendum that has largely left Aboriginal communities with reduced political capital and attention, perhaps this is the issue that the prime minister could take up in his second term. It seems unlikely, but Indigenous leaders across the country are mobilising, distressed at the sense that things seem to be going backwards, fast. Aboriginal people are grieving another round of sorry business this Reconciliation Week — supposed to be a time for all Australians to consider their part in the enormous schisms between Black and white communities. It feels particularly hollow this year.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Family of Warlpiri man who died after being restrained by police in supermarket demand independent inquiry
An independent investigator must be appointed to examine the death of a Warlpiri man in police custody, family members say, while also demanding video footage be released. The 24-year-old man with disabilities from Yuendemu died on Tuesday afternoon after police restrained him in an Alice Springs supermarket. His family wants Northern Territory police to 'immediately cease making public statements or media briefings that speculate on the cause of death or denigrate the character of the deceased'. They have also asked the force to retract any statements already made 'where they suggest criminality or aggression on the part of the deceased in the absence of any finding by a court or coroner or other independent investigation'. Solicitor George Newhouse has written to the police's acting commissioner Martin Dole on behalf of Warlpiri elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, who is the 24-year-old's grandfather. The family stated that NT police should 'appoint an independent body from another state or territory to undertake … investigations in a culturally safe manner'. The letter said police should also immediately provide 'all relevant CCTV and body-worn camera footage involving the deceased prior to and during his time in custody'. NT police on Friday rejected the call for an independent investigation. 'I respectfully reject calls for the investigation to be handed to an external body,' Dole said in a statement. 'This incident is being investigated by our major crime division, which operates under strict protocols and with full transparency. The investigation will also be independently reviewed by the NT coroner.' NT police did not respond on Friday to calls for footage to be released. Hargraves and others met at the Coles on Friday to remember Kumanjayi – a substitute name for someone who has died – and to demand justice. 'I am devastated by the death of my Jaja [grandson], another Warlpiri man who has had his life taken at the hands of the NT police,' Hargraves said. The man's death came days before coronial inquest findings were due after the 2019 death of Kumanjayi Walker, who was shot and killed by police officer Zachary Rolfe. The findings, due to be released on 10 June, could be delayed because of this week's death. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Police said there was a confrontation between the 24-year-old and a security guard about 1.10pm in the Alice Springs supermarket. The man had been 'placing items down the front of his clothing', police alleged. The NT police assistant commissioner Travis Wurst said on Tuesday the man 'behaved rather aggressively and was placed on to the ground' by police officers. 'He was later identified as losing consciousness,' Wurst said. The man stopped breathing and was given CPR before being taken to Alice Springs hospital. He was pronounced dead about 2.20pm. The Indigenous Australians minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, said on Friday that an independent investigation 'may be warranted'. 'It may be important to do that,' she told ABC radio. McCarthy said on Thursday that misinformation and rumours 'often abound in these circumstances' and that compounded grief and anger for families. Anthony Beven, from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), supported the camera footage being released to stop 'rumours and innuendo'. 'The footage will be disclosed at the coronial inquiry but, as Mr Hargraves and the family were saying, the longer it goes without people seeing that footage, the more thoughts are going through people's minds as to what happened or didn't happen,' he said. 'For the sake of transparency and alleviating any concerns the family has around what occurred, NAAJA fully supports the CCTV and body cam footage being released publicly – and if not to the public, at least to the family.' Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
ABC News
2 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Mourners gather for vigil in Alice Springs after death of Warlpiri man in police custody
The family of a 24-year-old Warlpiri man who died in police custody in Alice Springs this week has called for mourners to gather "in solidarity" to pay their respects. The 24-year-old from Yuendumu died on Tuesday after he was restrained by NT police officers following an altercation with a supermarket security guard. NT police say the man was placing items down the front of his clothing at the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs, when he was confronted by security guards. Two police officers in plain clothes were in the supermarket at the time and restrained the man. One eye witness told the ABC the restraint "looked pretty violent". "I think he may have swung at the security guard but I don't know if he actually hit him," another eye witness told the ABC. "Then I saw a bald man in a grey hoodie come up behind him and wrapped his arms around his torso in like a bear hug. "And then there was a bit of a tussle as he was trying to bring him to ground." The man was taken to Alice Springs Hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy on Wednesday found the man's cause of death "undetermined". NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst has said that preliminary result would require "further investigation to provide any substantive cause of death". The grandfather of the 24-year-old, Warlpiri elder Ned Hargraves, has helped organise the vigil. "I am devastated by the death of my Jaja (grandson), another Warlpiri man who has had his life taken at the hands of the NT police," a statement posted on his behalf by the @justiceforwalker_ Instagram account. "I will be going to pay my respects for my Jaja tomorrow at midday, at the location he was taken from us. "Please join me in solidarity, to mourn, to remember him, and to give me strength."
