Wild brawl in Alice Springs, service station attendant stabbing cap horror week in Territory

Alice Springs has been rocked by a fresh wave of violence with a service station worker allegedly stabbed during an attempted theft and wild footage emerging of a late-night brawl at a popular bar.

Police are looking for two men in relation to the alleged stabbing of a service station attendant in Alice Springs. Pictures: NT Police and Action for Alice

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The Northern Territory has been rocked by another stabbing of a retail worker and a large brawl involving bottles and other weapons that erupted out the back of a popular bar, just days after an elderly man was allegedly murdered by a teenager on bail while awaiting trial on rape charges.

On Sunday morning a service station worker in Alice Springs was allegedly stabbed after he confronted two males attempting to steal items from the store, with police on the hunt for two men who sources say could possibly be from out of town, capping off a horrific week of violence across the Territory.

Police say CCTV captured the men allegedly pushing the victim to the ground while standing over him, as one offender punches the victim once to the head, while the other offender lunged at him with an “edged weapon”, stabbing him once to the forearm.

Also in Alice Springs, wild footage has emerged of a brawl at a bar in the early hours of Sunday morning where terrified witnesses were forced to hide inside Bojangles Saloon as around half a dozen men fought in a carpark.

In video obtained by The Australian, patrons were forced to run inside the bar as men, some armed with bottles and other weapons, exchanged punches just after 1am while a remix of Taylor Swift’s Love Song played in the background.

At one stage in the clip, which goes for one minute, a man appears to throw a bottle at a man out of view before another individual drags him to the ground.

The weekend mayhem comes as the Territory government is set to recall parliament on Wednesday to pass “the toughest bail laws” in the nation after a teenager was charged with a raft of serious violent offences allegedly stabbed elderly supermarket owner Linford Feick to death in Darwin.

The teenager, who on Thursday was charged with murder, was on bail at the time for allegedly raping and assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

He was first granted bail by an on-call judge in late 2023, and had also been charged with depriving a person of their personal liberty, assaulting and resisting police, and spitting on an officer or emergency worker.

He was released under the conditions that he not leave a tiny remote community six hours south of Darwin and that he “not enter the Darwin area”, except for urgent medical treatment or to attend court. He previously appeared in the NT Supreme Court on April 17, when his bail was continued.

One of the two men the Northern Territory police would like to speak to following the stabbing of a service station worker in Alice Springs on Sunday morning. Picture: Supplied

One of the two men the Northern Territory police would like to speak to following the stabbing of a service station worker in Alice Springs on Sunday morning. Picture: Supplied

Police will allege the young man was stealing from the supermarket when Mr Feick confronted him and asked him to put the items back. He allegedly stabbed Mr Feick and fled the scene on a bicycle.

Police sources said officers are also considering laying additional charges, including breach of bail.

On Thursday Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro announced her Country Liberal Party government would move to expand laws to ensure a judge is satisfied an offender is not going to pose a risk to the community before they are granted bail.

“These laws are modelled off laws in both Victoria and NSW, which set an overarching primary test for our courts, which is the safety of the community is the number one priority,” she said, adding “more work needs to be done”.

Josh Peak, secretary of the NT branch of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, on Sunday said more must be done to keep Territory retail workers safe, and called for an “urgent review of security and safety measures at stand-alone locations across the NT”.

“Sites must be designed with the safety of workers in mind, which includes night windows, safety screens, secondary exits and safe rooms,” he said.