Yuendumu man with ‘significant mental health issues’ dies during police arrest in Alice Springs

An Indigenous man has died in Alice Springs while he was being placed under arrest by Northern Territory police, following an alleged altercation with a security guard at a major supermarket.

A man has died while being arrested by police in Alice Springs. Picture: Action for Alice

An Indigenous man understood to be under Northern Territory guardianship and believed to have “a significant mental health background and development issues” has died in Alice Springs while he was being placed under arrest by police, following an alleged altercation with a security guard at a major supermarket.

On Monday evening, specialist police flew to Alice Springs from Darwin following the incident. Senior police believe the arresting officers, who are understood to have been on their lunch break at the time, had seen the 24-year-old man allegedly pushing a security guard.

Police and the government are bracing for an explosive reaction from Yuendumu, understood to be the man’s home community, with the death occurring exactly two weeks before handing down of the findings of the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.

The Yuendumu man was shot dead after attacking constable Zachary Rolfe with scissors during a botched arrest.

“This is going to be bad,” said one source.

Another source said the man “was never really cared for well”.

While the man’s identity is yet to be formally confirmed by police, sources said it was believed he had had previous run-ins with authorities including for assaulting police, aggravated assault and resisting police. Sources said he was receiving NDIS support and living in supported accommodation.

NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst said on Tuesday the incident “involved a person who was placing items down the front of their clothing, who was confronted by security guards”.

“There was an altercation that occurred as a consequence of that confrontation, one of the security guards was assaulted, and there were two police officers who were in plain clothes at the time in the supermarket who rendered assistance to the security guards,” Assistant Commissioner Wurst said.

He said the man “behaved rather aggressively” and was placed on the ground after which he was “later identified as losing consciousness”.

“The police were assisted by other general duties police who arrived St John’s Ambulance also arrived at the location, and the man was taken to the Alice Springs hospital,” Assistant Commissioner Wurst said.

In a statement, police said the incident occurred at Alice Springs Coles just after 1pm, with reports into emergency services saying the man “had been involved in an altercation with a security guard”.

“Two police officers were in the store at the time of the incident and restrained the adult male,” police said in a statement.

“A short time later, the man stopped breathing and CPR was commenced.

Emergency services cordoned off the Alice Springs Coles as a crime scene on Tuesday May 27. Picture: Gera Kazakov

“St John Ambulance attended the scene, and the man was conveyed to Alice Springs Hospital where he was pronounced deceased shortly after 2.20pm,” police said.
Police said a crime scene has been established, and the incident is being investigated as a death in custody. The supermarket was quickly closed and is expected to remain closed.

“The NTPF Major Crime Section Detectives are travelling to Alice Springs and investigations are ongoing. Police will now investigate this matter on behalf of the coroner,” police said.

One person told anti-crime advocacy group Action for Alice they saw the man surrounded by police and handcuffed.

“I witnessed a large Indigenous man on the floor in aisle number 4 inside Coles, surrounded by a few cops with handcuffs on him,” the page posted. After a short while, the police began performing CPR,” they said.

“Later, six paramedics and more than ten police officers arrived at the scene.”

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates while about 26 per cent of Territorians are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, they are overrepresented as 86 per cent of the NT prison population.

Between July 2022 and June 2024, 55 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody according to the Australian Institute of Criminology. Of these deaths, three were in the Northern Territory.

Amnesty International estimates more than 590 Australians have died while detained since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody delivered its report into the matter in 1991.

In a 2024 investigation into one of these deaths, the NT coroner found the death of a jailed 37-year-old Aboriginal man was avoidable as the man was in cardiac arrest for two days before dying as “his symptoms were underestimated”.