The acting head of the Northern Territory Police has rejected calls for an independent investigation into the death of a 24-year-old disabled Warlpiri man who died in police custody earlier this week.
Despite Indigenous people highlighting a litany of racism and over-policing in the NT by the police - much of which has come to the fore during the inquest into the 2019 shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker - Acting Commissioner of NT Police Martin Dole "respectfully" rejected calls from the family of the young man to hold an independent investigation.
After extending his "sincere condolences to his family, friends and community" and noting he had contacted the officers involved, Commissioner Dole said the death in custody would be investigated by the NT Police's Major Crime Division, which he argued, "operates under strict protocols and with full transparency".
"The investigation will also be independently reviewed by the NT Coroner, who has broad powers to examine all aspects of the incident and make findings without interference," he said.
The man, who was under state care and reportedly living in supported accommodation, died on Tuesday after being restrained by two plain-clothed officers following an alleged altercation with a security guard.
In a statement, Commissioner Dole asked the "community to allow the investigation to take its course," arguing they were "committed to a full and fair examination of the facts".
Nonetheless, the NT Police have already told reporters the man - who court documents revealed by NT News showed had previously been found unfit to stand trial due to mental impairment and placed on a non-custodial supervision order - was allegedly stealing and had also allegedly committed another crime earlier in the day.
The comments prompted his grandfather, Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, to state: "It is disgraceful that police are already putting out stories that portray my jaja (grandson) as a criminal."
"We are always told by lawyers that we need to wait for investigations to take place before we comment on events," he said.
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His jaja, a Warlpiri man with connections to the Yuendumu community, died after being "taken to the ground" by the officers, with a witness to the incident claiming the officer's "knee was behind his head".
Police say they "restrained the adult male" after an altercation with a security guard at an Alice Springs Coles; however, the male "stopped breathing and CPR was commenced".
They have not explained how restraining somebody can lead to their death, what restraint they used, or what the meaning of "placed on the ground" means.
The NT's chief forensic pathologist has completed an autopsy but found the cause of death "undetermined," with further investigation now underway.
Speaking at a vigil where hundreds gathered outside the Coles supermarket in Mparntwe/Alice Springs where his jaja died, Mr Hargraves called for "respect" and told the crowd: "We can't live like this, we can't go on like this."
The ABC reported he told the vigil, "Every day our black fellas, yapa, getting stopped."
"It's gotta stop," he said.
"We respect you - how about us? Respect us. We were meant to be working together, but we're not."
The man's death marks the ninth First Nations death in custody this year and at least the 594th since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. No one has ever been convicted in relation to those deaths.
Police have long been accused of racism and over-policing towards First Nations people in the NT.
Last year, Kumanjayi Walker's cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, told National Indigenous Times the existence of racism in the NT Police was something Indigenous community members had long known, and had been making repeated complaints about for years.
"For us, it has been something that has existed forever," Ms Fernandez-Brown said.
"I think when you work within the police force, it's hard for us to believe that anybody within the police force doesn't know that racism exists, because it comes across so obviously to us, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
She added: "For anybody that believes that there isn't racism in the police, to say that it is either intentionally lying or being arrogant to that fact."
On Thursday, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy told ABC an independent investigation into the man's death could be the best path forward, with the Yuendumu community having already experienced "many traumas" even before the wounds were reopened this week.
"In the interest of having some separation, calls for an independent investigation may be warranted; it may be important to do that, given that there is such tension," she said.
However, Commissioner Dole said he conveyed to the Senator his "complete confidence in the systems of oversight in place" in the NT, labelling them "robust and well-established".
"I also expressed my full confidence in our detectives and the independent processes already in place within the NT Police Force," he said.
