The family of a Noongar man who died in police custody says the coronial inquest into his death has failed to understand "how police treat Aboriginal people".
Jeffrey Winmar, a proud Noongar man, was 28 when he died after multiple police units, including the canine squad, attended his home on November 9, 2023, to arrest him. He lost consciousness following a police pursuit and died two days later.
Over the past two weeks, the inquest before Coroner Sarah Gebert has heard from numerous police officers, several of whom were granted certificates protecting them from self-incrimination.
Body-worn camera footage played in court showed Mr Winmar collapsing after being confronted by a police dog. He had fled from officers attempting to arrest him at a Burwood address in Melbourne's east, scaling the property's roof and jumping multiple fences.
There was no further footage of the incident because the dog handler moved away and detectives were not required to have body-worn cameras installed.
The court was told police cancelled two initial calls for an ambulance but paramedics ultimately attended the scene after Mr Winmar went into cardiac arrest.
He is one of at least 626 First Nations people to have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
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Delivering a statement on Friday, Mr Winmar's father, Jeffrey 'Pep' Anderson, criticised the coronial process, arguing, "I haven't felt like this inquest understands how police treat Aboriginal people and Jeff's history with police."
"There's been too many Blak deaths in custody. We need people to see it from our side. We need people to stand with us, including the courts and especially the Coroner mob," he said.
Mr Anderson said he had spent his whole life seeing Aboriginal people targeted by police in Western Australia, including bashings and being shot at.
As a young boy, he said his son would have witnessed Elders "being arrested and mishandled by police," something which would have "really frightened him".
"We know police. We know what police are capable of doing," Mr Anderson said. "Jeff knew this too. Jeff would have been terrified of police. I can see Jeff's face in that footage and I just know how scared Jeff was of police that day."
In discussing the tragedy around several family members who had died in custody, Mr Anderson added: "The police and prisons are killing us. And no one seems to be taking it seriously."
"What's it going to take for people to start taking us seriously when we say that cops are killing our people?" he asked.
"My son died because of police's racism. How many more commissions, inquiries and reports do there need to be for this inquest to wake up and understand what's happening to us and what happened to my son."
Mr Winmar's mother, Ursulla Winmar, described her son as a leader within the family who kept everyone together. Since his death, she said, "our family is falling apart".
"We are so broken. He was the big brother and like a father figure to my younger children," Ms Winmar said. "My family chain is broken now and because there's a piece missing, it can never be fixed. He was one of the most important pieces of the 20 people in my family that linked us all together."
Ms Winmar said she had hoped the inquest would see Victoria Police "make it right by owning up to what they did", but instead argued that she does not "feel like I have the whole story".
"I feel the police have been made to be the victims when my family are the real victims," she said.
"My son did not deserve to die for the warrants out for his arrest. My son didn't deserve to have ambulances cancelled twice while he was experiencing a life-threatening critical incident.
"He didn't deserve to be treated as less than human and stripped of his human rights based off the colour of his skin as a First Nations man. My son Jeffrey was failed. If our system is so just and so right, why do these deaths continue? Why is my son another statistic?"
The coroner will deliver her findings at a later date.
With AAP
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