NT Police shut down calls to ‘stand down’ officer allegedly involved in restraining Kumanjayi White
There ‘isn’t a reason’ to stand down the two police officer allegedly involved in restraining a young man in a Coles supermarket, who later died, a top cop says.
A Fitzgerald Justice Award winner is calling for a cop to “stand down” over his alleged involvement in restraining a young man who died in custody in Alice Springs, but police say “there isn’t a reason” for them to do so.
On Friday in Alice Springs, Maxine Carlton, who won the award in 2019 for her work with NAAJA, called for police prosecutor Steven Haig to “stand down”.
“We know the police have their rules and their laws, but if he’s been found out that he has (allegedly) done something to our son … he needs to stand down,” she told a crowd of about 70 people on the Alice Springs courthouse lawns.
Ms Carlton said she was the “second mum” of Kumanjayi White, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man from Yuendumu who died after he was restrained in Alice Springs Coles on May 27.
Mr White had disabilities, and prior to his death, was allegedly restrained by two off duty police officers – one of whom is believed to be Alice Springs-based police prosecutor Steven Haig.
NT Police are investigating Mr White’s death as a death in custody, and have previously rejected calls for an independent investigation into the death.
No findings have been made against either of the officers involved.
Prior to the courthouse lawns gathering on Friday, NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst addressed media in Darwin, where he was asked why the officers allegedly involved in restraining Mr White had not been stood down.
“At this time, the way in which the investigation’s been constructed, there isn’t a reason to stand them down,” Mr Wurst said.
He said the investigation into Mr White’s death is in an “advanced state” but police are still waiting on a forensic pathology report and interstate samples to be returned.
“Police are yet to receive that autopsy report. We cannot finalise that investigation until that’s been obtained,” he said.
No charges have been laid over Mr White’s death.
Mr White “wasn’t a violent man, he just had a disability,” Ms Carlton told the crowd in Alice Springs on Friday.
She also told the crowd she’d previously worked with Mr Haig when she was working in the courts.
Calls for Mr Haig to “stand down” were also made by Senior Warlpiri Elder and Mr White’s grandfather Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, who told the crowd “I won’t stop until my last breath”.
Ms Carlton was one of 10 speakers at the event on the courthouse lawns, which was protesting police watch house conditions in the Territory, organiser Meret MacDonald told the crowd.
Figures released in July show three per cent of the Territory’s Aboriginal population was locked up – making them one of the most incarcerated people in the world.
As of June 30, there were 2509 Indigenous Territorians in a cell, figures from the Department of Corrections showed, with 88 per cent of those behind bars in the Territory Indigenous.
This is despite the NT only having an estimated Indigenous population of roughly 79,600 people – or about 30 per cent of the Territory’s population.
Originally published as NT Police shut down calls to ‘stand down’ officer allegedly involved in restraining Kumanjayi White
