Family wants footage of police death in custody
The incident could lead to the postponement of the Northern Territory coroner's release of findings into the notorious police shooting death of Indigenous teen Kumanjayi Walker in an outback town in 2019.
A mentally disabled 24-year-old was forced to the floor by two plain-clothes officers on Tuesday, following an alleged shoplifting incident and assault on a security guard in Alice Springs.
The man was handcuffed but lost consciousness and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards at Alice Springs Hospital.
A woman who witnessed the incident told the NT News one of the officers "had his knee behind his head".
An autopsy on Wednesday did not determine the cause of death, police have said, and CCTV and security guard body-worn camera footage is being viewed.
The young man's grandfather, Yuendumu elder and Warlpiri man Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, said the family was "in the dark about what really happened" and he had asked his lawyer for access to the footage.
"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 (grandson)," he said.
The man's death has prompted his original home community of Yuendumu to consider postponing a June 10 visit by Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage to announce her findings into the 2019.
Mr Walker was fatally shot by then NT police officer Zachary Rolfe during a bungled arrest. Mr Rolfe was found not guilty on all charges over the 19-year-old's death in 2022.
Mr Hargraves said the community was talking about postponing the June 10 event "because of all these troubles happening right now, it's too much".
"We are terrified. We are shattered. We are frustrated. This is happening again and again,'' he told AAP.
"They (police) are saying they want to come and say sorry to us - no. We can't go on saying sorry, sorry, sorry."
Mr Hargraves said his grandson was a "skinny bloke" who had excess pressure put on him.
He referred to the case of Black American George Floyd, who died after being held to the ground with a Minneapolis police officer's knee on his neck in 2020.
"What are the police doing using such force on a vulnerable young man in a supermarket? Did they even try to de-escalate?" Mr Hargraves said.
"We cannot tolerate this situation, with continued brutality and lack of respect."
The dead man is understood to have been under a guardianship order and on an NDIS plan.
Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst has offered his condolences to the family. He said police would investigate the incident "with an objective lens".
Indigenous Australians Minister and NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said it was devastating news that a man "just searching for some food" had died and she had talked to the family to express her sympathy.
She said the Yuendumu community had gone through a traumatic time after Mr Walker's death and the latest loss heightened concerns over keeping calm in the community on all sides.
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