Alice Springs crime: 22-year-old man arrested after alleged Gregory Terrace stabbing

A man has been arrested after the alleged daylight stabbing of another in Alice Springs – in an altercation between up to 20 people. LATEST DETAILS.

Witnesses rendered assistance to the injured man.

A man was arrested after an alleged daylight stabbing in Alice Springs after an altercation between up to 20 people on Gregory Terrace.

Chilling vision of the incident has emerged which police said took place about 5.10pm, when the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received reports a 27-year-old man had been stabbed multiple times to his chest.

It shows the armed man walking towards a mother pushing a baby in a pram, prompting comparisons with the stabbing incident in Bondi last year which left six people dead.

Police and St John Ambulance attended the scene and provided initial first aid before the injured man was taken to Alice Springs Hospital in a critical condition.

It is alleged the offender was carrying two steak knives.

Alice Springs residents were witness to the incident.

Police declared a crime scene on Gregory Terrace between Todd and Hartley streets and members of the public are advised to steer clear of the area.

They said a 22-year-old man was arrested at a residence on Gap Road about 12am.

Footage obtained by The Australian captured before emergency services arrived showed the injured man laying on the footpath as bystanders applied pressure to his wounds.

The vision showed the man alleged to have been behind the attack fighting with two other men, one of whom the video showed he attempted to stab.

The Australian reported the men had been punted from an Alice Springs bar, with the incident spilling over into the street believed to have its origins in a remote community.

The allegedly armed man walks towards the mum and baby.

Speaking later, the mother said she was “bloody terrified” and wanted to leave Alice Springs.

The partner and father of the woman and baby who were nearby when the incident occurred said he was considering leaving Alice Springs immediately.

“I thought about the Bondi Junction attack when I saw the man walking towards my wife and baby - that was the feeling, that this was a Sydney thing,” he said.

“I had nothing on me to defend my family, just Woolworths shopping bags. I could see the knives in his hand and then he’s put them in his pocket.

“How do you ring everyone up in your family to explain, if anything had happened to my 12-month-old? How would I explain that to our family?”

“A lot of people would drive past that and go ‘Oh, another day in Alice’; when is enough? The action that has been taken hasn’t been enough.

“I haven’t seen (knife) wanding, the Banned Drinker Register has got to be implemented for establishments,” he said.

The BDR only applies to takeaway alcohol purchases in the Northern Territory and not bar sales.

Police said the investigation into the assault remained ongoing.

Speaking to media in Darwin on Friday morning, Trade Minister Robyn Cahill – when asked about whether such an incident would be off-putting for visitors to the Red Centre – said there was a “huge amount” of work being done.

“We’ve made it very clear as a government that it is not acceptable for people not to feel safe in our community,” she said on Friday.

Ms Cahill said the government needed to work with communities to “actually deal” with “anti-social behaviour”.

“We’ve given increased powers to the police to be able to deal with anti-social behaviour, and the reality is we have to actually work with communities as well,” she said.

“Because they will need to work with us to see why these people are coming in from communities into town; how we can actually address the concerns that they might have, how we can empower our communities to actually deal with that anti-social behaviour at its root.”

“Then we can actually reduce the risk of those sorts of harms occurring within our town centres.”

She went on to say tough new bail laws introduced after Nightcliff Friendly Grocer Linford Feick’s alleged murder have had a “significant impact”.

“The reality is that changing behaviour takes time and we will not be able to fix this problem if we don’t address the root causes of crime.”

Originally published as Alice Springs crime: 22-year-old man arrested after alleged Gregory Terrace stabbing