Death of Indigenous man in custody sparks nationwide rallies as public 'demand justice'
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article refers to Indigenous people who have died.
Crowds have taken to the streets across Sydney and Brisbane in the second day of nationwide protests following the death of an Indigenous man in custody.
Kumanjayi White, 24, died last Tuesday after he was restrained by two police officers at a Coles supermarket in Alice Springs.
Police allege the 24-year-old was involved in an altercation with security guards after being seen placing items down the front of his clothing.
He was placed on the ground by two plain-clothed arresting officers before he lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at Alice Springs Hospital.
Hundreds of protesters gathered on the steps of Sydney's Town Hall on George Street on Saturday night where the lawyer for Mr White's family addressed the crowd.
'I've just come back from Alice Springs and Yuendumu, I'm angry there are mothers grieving there tonight,' lawyer George Newhouse said.
'I am angry there was a disabled young man calling out for his mother in Coles last week.'
Mr Newhouse read a statement from Mr White's family, mourning the death of the 24-year-old and calling for an independent investigation.
The proceedings opened with a smoking ceremony before the crowd moved south towards the Surry Hills Police Station following speeches and music.
Police attended the scene on horseback and watched on as protestors held signs reading 'Stop black deaths in custody' and 'Justice for Kumanjayi'.
This year alone there have been 12 Indigenous deaths in custody and 597 since the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established.
Meanwhile, similar scenes unfolded at King George Square in Brisbane where organisers also issued calls for an independent investigation.
'No more stolen lives' a banner read, behind a stage where Gungarri woman Dr Raylene Nixon opened up about her own son's death in police custody.
'Today I carry with me, the weight of my own loss of my son Steven Lee,' she said, according to the National Indigenous Times.
'First they criminalise us, then they brutalise us and then they justify it.'
Her son, Steven Lee Nixon-Mckellar, 27, died in October 2021 shortly after being arrested by a senior constable outside his relative's home in Toowoomba, Queensland.
Rallies and vigils commemorating Mr White's death were also held nationwide on Friday, stretching as far as Victoria's state parliament to Alice Springs.
Northern Territory Police said in a statement last week that the cause of the 24-year-old's death remained undetermined and was before forensic pathologists.
They allege he assaulted a woman that was not known to him near a Commonwealth Bank on Gregory Terrace just prior to the incident at Coles.
Investigations into the alleged assault are ongoing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Accidental foraging, reasonable doubt and ‘lies upon lies': Erin Patterson jury hears week of closing submissions in triple-murder trial
Colin Mandy SC, Erin Patterson's barrister in her triple-murder trial, was into the final minute of a closing submission that spanned three days when he started repeating one phrase, almost like a mantra, over and over. It was the last time the jury would hear from anyone in the case other than Justice Christopher Beale, a coda after the prosecution's closing argument and evidence from more than 50 witnesses. Twelve times Mandy said it in the last 60 seconds or so, the only answer, the one thing he wanted the jury to know: 'not guilty'. Patterson, 50, is facing three charges of murder and one of attempted murder in the Victorian supreme court. The charges relate to allegedly using death cap mushrooms in beef wellingtons served to lunch guests at her house in Leongatha on 29 July 2023. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering the relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson – his parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson – and attempting to murder his uncle, Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband. 'If you think that it's possible that Erin deliberately poisoned the meal, you must find her not guilty,' Mandy said. 'If you think that maybe Erin deliberately poisoned the meal, you must find her not guilty. 'If you think that she probably deliberately poisoned the meal, you must find her not guilty.' 'Possible', 'maybe' and 'probably' were emphasised, a nod to what Mandy says is a prosecution case that has not cleared the high bar of reasonable doubt. The jury should not consider the trial like a boxing match, prosecution and defence slugging it out, but the high jump, Mandy told the court. Only the prosecution, however, had to clear that bar; Patterson didn't even need to jump. 'If you think at the end of your deliberations, taking into account the arguments that we've made that it is a [reasonable] possibility that this was an accident … you must find her not guilty,' Mandy said. 'And if you think it is a reasonable possibility that her evidence was true, you must find her not guilty. 'Our submission to you is the prosecution can't get over that high bar of beyond reasonable doubt. And when you consider the actual evidence … and consider it properly, methodically, analytically, your verdicts on these charges should be not guilty.' Of the evidence given by Patterson, Mandy told the jury she came through unscathed, her account of what really happened the day of the lunch intact. 'Her account remained coherent and consistent, day after day after day, even when challenged, rapid fire, from multiple angles, repeatedly.' Even if the jury were not convinced of that account, it did not mean Patterson was guilty, he said. 'If you reject her evidence, then what you have to do is take that evidence, put it to one side, and still consider whether the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt on the evidence that they bring,' Mandy said. In the prosecution's telling, it wasn't just that Patterson's evidence was not convincing: it was a 'calculated deception' played on the jury. The contrast in message between the defence and prosecution was also delivered with a contrast in style. Nanette Rogers SC delivered the prosecution's closing address carefully and evenly, with the occasional pause for effect, her adherence to the pages in front of her so regimented that she would repeat sentences if she started them differently to how they had been written. Mandy was far more animated, almost theatrical, with flourishes that bordered on the comical. He mocked the prosecution case that Patterson planned the murders as far back as 28 April 2023, when it is alleged she picked death cap mushrooms after finding a post on iNaturalist, a citizen science website where the location of the mushrooms was shared. 'On the Crown case, you might think remarkably, extraordinarily, Erin Patterson observed and acted on the only two sightings of death cap mushrooms ever in South Gippsland … like she was sitting there waiting for them,' Mandy said. 'Never seen them before in South Gippsland. iNaturalist says they don't grow here. Refresh. Nup, still not there. Refresh. Still not there. Refresh, still not there.' Mandy then exclaimed 'ah', his hands wide, pretending to be Patterson discovering the post about death cap mushrooms. 'How likely is that?' he asked. Mandy lent all the way forward on to the lectern at this stage and immediately shifted tone. 'There's not one scrap of evidence that she actually saw those posts,' he said, shaking his right pointer finger towards the jury. The closing addresses are not evidence, but new matters emerged, or were drawn into sharper focus. Mandy said it was possible Patterson became unwell earlier than her lunch guests because she tasted the duxelles as she prepared the beef wellingtons. Patterson said the duxelles tasted bland when she cooked down button mushrooms bought from the supermarket, so she added dried mushrooms from a Tupperware container in her pantry. At the time, she thought these were from an Asian grocer, but now believed the container also held death cap mushrooms she accidentally foraged. Mandy made clear, however, that Patterson gave no such evidence that she re-tasted the duxelles after adding the dried mushrooms. He also wanted to make clear Patterson was 'not on trial for lying'. Moreover, Mandy told the jury, if she had been lying about some of the points the prosecution alleged she had, she would have told better lies: why say she didn't know what was in her vomit, if saying it contained beef wellington would help her? Why not say she had vomited after overeating sooner, given that the greater proximity of vomiting to eating the beef wellington, the greater the likelihood it would reduce the extent of illness? This came after Rogers had catalogued these lies – lies she said Patterson told to other witnesses in the case, and to the jury. Lies told not in the heat of the moment, lies Patterson has admitted, lies she has not. Perhaps the starkest of these, Rogers said, was Patterson's lie about weight loss surgery. 'In the lead up to the lunch and in the periods after the lunch, Erin Patterson told so many lies it's hard to keep track of them. She has told lies upon lies because she knew the truth would implicate her,' the prosecutor said. 'When she knew her lies had been uncovered, she came up with a carefully constructed narrative to fit with the evidence – almost. There are some inconsistencies that she just cannot account for so she ignores them, says she can't remember those conversations, or says other people are just wrong, even her own children. 'You will therefore have no difficulty in rejecting … that this was all a horrible foraging accident.' Rogers said there was no other 'reasonable alternative explanation for what happened to the lunch guests, other than the accused deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms and deliberately included them in the meal she served them, with an intention to kill them'. Justice Christopher Beale has told the jury that his closing charge to them, when he will discuss the legal principles that apply to them considering their verdict and direct them on how the evidence can be used, will take at least two days. 'First of all, maintain an open mind. You have heard the evidence. You have heard the closing speeches of the prosecution and the defence, but you have not heard my charge,' Beale said. 'The second point, and the last point, is it is more important than ever that you have a good weekend. I really want you to come back refreshed.' The trial at the Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell was originally expected to last five to six weeks, but is set to stretch into a ninth. Court will resume on Tuesday, meaning the jury will not retire to consider its verdict until Wednesday at the earliest.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Mum's tearful plea for help finding her son Darren Garwood after he vanished without a trace almost a month ago
A Perth mother has fought back tears as she begged for help finding her missing son after he vanished without a trace in bushland almost a month ago. Darren Garwood, 38, left a home in Sawyers Valley, east of Perth, on the morning of Sunday May 25. He had been driving a white Ford Ranger utility with registration SW18692 when police believe he travelled deep into bushland south of the Great Eastern Highway. Mr Garwood's mother, Cecelia McCarron, said she was desperate for answers. 'Not knowing where he is, is extremely, incredibly hard for us,' Ms McCarron told reporters on Friday. 'As his mother, and also his father and the rest of our family, I'm pleading if anyone has any information, whether from before his disappearance or at any point over the past four weeks, we would be so deeply grateful for your help. 'His last known location was somewhere in the Mundaring area, possibly within the national parks - anywhere between Mundaring and York. 'So please just help us bring him home.' Mr Garwood's bank account and mobile phone haven't been accessed since he disappeared. Police are concerned he wasn't carrying enough resources for an extended time in the bush. Sergeant Tania Mackenzie said aerial and ground searches for Mr Garwood, including along bush tracks in the Mundaring area, had yielded no sign of him, leading officers to believe he had gone off the beaten path. 'It is unusual, we know Darren spoke to family on the Saturday night, late in the night, and is normally in contact with family and friends, so it is unusual, and hence our concerns for his welfare,' Sgt Mackenzie said. 'All we can ask is that people look out for his car, that's our best chance, (for) someone to see his white Ford Ranger in that bush land, and (for people to) just to be cognisant of the fact that he's probably gone deeper into the bushland, rather than just on tracks.' Officers are not treating Mr Garwood's disappearance as suspicious.
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Meet the man who really has Taylor Swift's back in the fallout with Blake Lively…and no, it's not who you think!
As Taylor Swift faces the prospect of having her deeply personal texts with Blake Lively exposed in court - one very protective figure is stepping in to shield her privacy. This man was even accused of punching an 'aggressive' photographer in the face and giving him the finger during Taylor's Eras tour Down Under.
