NT coroner to hand down findings in Kumanjayi Bloomfield death in custody investigation

THE Northern Territory coroner will soon hand down his findings after a police investigation into the death of an Indigenous man in custody was handed down

THE Northern Territory coroner will soon hand down his findings after a police investigation into the death of an Indigenous man in custody was handed down in 2020, 16 months after the incident.

Kumanjayi Bloomfield, 47, died in a crash on the Plenty Highway near Harts Range after he tried to evade a roadside breath test in July 2019.

The inquest heard police called off the pursuit but later found Mr Bloomfield’s body and the car wreckage.

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He had blood alcohol reading of 0.28 per cent when he died.

Mr Bloomfield’s death was considered a death in custody because it was deemed likely he was attempting to escape a police RBT when he died.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Kelvin Currie, told the inquest Mr Bloomfield used a dirt side road to evade police and the pursuit spanned less than 2km before it was called off.

Mr Currie said during his opening the family expressed unhappiness with the lack of cultural awareness of police, the time taken to investigate and the level of communication between police and themselves during the course of the investigation, which was “not sufficient to alleviate their suspicions”.

NT Police gave evidence that the autopsy report was submitted nine months after Mr Bloomfield’s death, despite the fact internal police guidelines require death in custody investigations be reported to the coroner within six months.

But an inquest into Mr Bloomfield’s death was on Wednesday told police did not hand up their investigation into Mr Bloomfield’s death until December 2020, 16 months later.

The inquiry heard the family were not given “fast” access to view the body or the police vehicle which involved in the pursuit because it was taken for evidence.

Mr Currie, told the inquest in his closing submissions on Wednesday he suspected it was never communicated by police to the community how and why they were carrying out their duties after the incident “simply because the coroners office requires it”.

“Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody the law requires it. Police have to get a massive response to these things,” he said.

“If one were to be suspicious there are a lot of things you might join together, including taking the car out in the middle of the night.

“Once one gets suspicious its hard for that suspicion to ebb away.”

He said according to police policies the officers were not doing the wrong thing at the time.

“Having said that I can understand why the family say, ‘If you didn’t do what you did he’d be alive’.”

Mr Currie said no one would deny the investigation “took too long”.

“It means the community and he family have a longer period of grief left unresolved,” he said.

The families lawyer, Daniel Gorry said in his closing submission there was “a failure in the immediate stages of the investigation phase to engage the family and community members, which then had ramifications later on”.

Mr Gorry said defence’s recommendations included a broadcast message to all members of NT Police Force regarding their obligations under general orders of a death in custody and also the instruction of body worn footage.

Mr Gorry said more informed and culturally appropriate protocols to communicate with the family afterwards may have compounded the grief felt by the Bloomfields.

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He said the Bloomfield family would like to see changes to police protocols in the future.

“The second recommendation is measures to engage family members in the earliest possible stages of the death in custody process, which should be enshrined in the rewritten general police orders”.

“Explaining policies on the night of, to the family, may have alleviated quite a lot of the concerns and the mistrust (that since arose).”

The coroner’s decision will be handed down at a later date yet to be announced.

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