Prosecutors withdraw most serious charge against man shot by police in Palmerston

Prosecutors have withdrawn the most serious charge against a Palmerston man who was shot up to six times by police and agreed to spare him a Supreme Court trial.

PROSECUTORS have withdrawn the most serious charge against a Palmerston man who was shot up to six times by police in March and agreed to spare him a Supreme Court trial.

Peter Skeen, 20, was charged with recklessly endangering life, assaulting police and going armed in public after allegedly threatening officers with a spear during the confrontation in Gray on March 8.

On Monday, his lawyer Clancy Dane told the Darwin Local Court prosecutors had told him they intended to withdraw the reckless endangerment charge and had consented to all other charges being heard by a magistrate.

After reading a note from his colleague on the file indicating the charge would be replaced with a second assault police charge, prosecutor Daniel Payne formally withdrew the more serious charge.

Skeen is also facing a separate charge of unlawfully using a motor vehicle and will return to court on August 15.

Speaking outside court after Skeen’s last court appearance in May, his uncle Ranald Link said his nephew would fight the charges.

At the time, Mr Link said Skeen was still “going through a lot of pain, physically and mentally” and would likely spend up to 12 months in hospital.

Ranald Link outside court in May.

“He’s got four bullet wounds, a couple to the chest, one skipped his neck, one to the abdomen, they had to cut him open because it hit a main artery, cut his guts open,” he said.

“They can’t do no MRI scans or nothing because of the shrapnel still in his body.”

At the time of the shooting, Assistant Commissioner Michael White alleged Skeen had raised a spear and attempted to throw it at one of the officers, who were responding to an unrelated incident.

He alleged that after repeated warnings, one officer deployed a taser around the same time as their partner produced a handgun and fired six times in quick succession.

“That will form part of the investigation more broadly, but it is (alleged) that at that time, the officers were in danger and they exercised their decision to use deadly force,” Mr White said.