Report completed almost a year after death in custody
Nearly a year after the death of a young disabled Aboriginal man, an external police review into the use of force by officers who restrained him has been completed.
Kumanjayi White, 24, died after being forcibly restrained by two plainclothes police officers at a supermarket in Alice Springs in May 2025; This sparked national outrage and rallies calling for an independent investigation.
Northern Territory Police rejected the calls and refused to silence officers or release CCTV footage of the incident at the request of Mr White’s family, led by his grandfather Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves.
An unnamed interstate police force has been asked to review the use-of-force investigation before prosecutors decide whether to file charges against the officers.
NT Police confirmed to AAP that the independent use of force review was completed and received on Wednesday.
“This report is currently being considered and will form part of the evidentiary briefing submitted to the Ministry of Public Prosecutions,” it said in a statement on Friday. The statement was included.
Mr White, who was mentally disabled and was in care, died in the confectionery aisle of an Alice Springs supermarket on May 27.
Police allege the man stole and assaulted a security guard.
The NT’s shadow attorney general, Chansey Paech, this week wrote to Premier Lia Finocchiaro asking for clarification of the investigation, given the family’s concerns.
In the federal senate this week, independent Senator Lidia Thorpe said NT Police had made no investigation and no decision against Mr White’s family.
“This follows a long, long history of violent police investigating themselves,” he said.
In October, NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage expressed her condolences to Mr White’s family, saying the inquest had been a “slow but careful and considered process”.
“We will continue to work consistently and comprehensively to ensure that there is a full investigation and that as much of the truth as possible is uncovered,” he told a courtroom in Alice Springs.
Mr White was originally from the same outback Yuendumu community that lost 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker when he was shot by then NT police officer Zachary Rolfe during a botched arrest in 2019.
Mr Rolfe was found not guilty of all charges relating to the death in 2022, but Ms Armitage said her forensic findings could not rule out the possibility that racist attitudes contributed to the decision to pull the trigger.
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