Aboriginal community shaken by second custody death

The family of Kumanjayi White are asking for CCTV footage and an independent investigation a week after the 24-year-old died in police custody at a supermarket in Alice Springs, Central Australia.“The young Warlpiri man who died in police custody in Coles [supermarket] in Alice Springs on Tuesday May 27 is my Jaja [grandson],” White’s grandfather, Warlpiri leader Ned Hargraves, said in a statement on Tuesday.“We know that he was held down by two police until he lost consciousness and perished. But at the moment we are in the dark about what really happened,” Hargraves added.“Family representatives need to see all available footage of this incident immediately – both CCTV and body cam so we can understand what happened to my Jaja,” he said.“But so far they are refusing to grant this.”While details are still emerging of the circumstances surrounding the death, Hargraves said his grandson had been living in supported accommodation because of disabilities.“He needed support and not to be criminalised because of his disability,” Hargraves said.Gene Hill, who previously worked at the supermarket, told public broadcaster ABC that he knew the victim.“One glance at him and you can see he’s got special needs,” said Hill.Calls for independent investigationThe Northern Territory Police Force (NTPF) said last week that White “stopped breathing” after he was “restrained” by two plainclothes police officers.The “police will now investigate this matter on behalf of the coroner”, the NTPF added, in a statement.Independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe, Northern Territory community group Justice Not Jails, and human rights organisation Amnesty International are among those supporting the family’s calls for an independent investigation.Northern Territory Senator and federal Australian minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy last week acknowledged the “many traumas” the Warlpiri community in the remote Yuendumu area, where White hailed from, had experienced and said “calls for an independent investigation may be warranted”.“It may be important to do that, given that there is such tension,” McCarthy, from the centre-left Labor federal government said, according to the ABC.Kumanjayi White’s death comes six years after nineteen year old Kumanjayi Walker was shot by Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe.

Aboriginal community shaken by second custody death

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-09

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Aboriginal community shaken by second custody death

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-09

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