![\"Erin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8c2aa5a5383c1ad52501d8e27962d76b010db17b.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Warning: This story contains the name and images of an Indigenous person who has died.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Winmar was his family\u2019s protector. A beacon of positivity and a man of strong values, he died two days after police placed him in handcuffs on a Melbourne nature strip.<\/p>\n Police called an ambulance<\/a> to attend to him, but officers later cancelled it.<\/p>\n Winmar, a Noongar man and one of 13 siblings, died in hospital days later following repeated cardiac arrests in November 2023.<\/p>\n Medical staff found he also had litres of blood in his abdomen due to unexplained lacerations to his liver and methamphetamine in his bloodstream.<\/p>\n Coroner Sarah Gebert has begun examining the circumstances of Winmar\u2019s death after it was revealed police were attempting to arrest the 28-year-old for alleged aggravated burglary, theft and deception offences when he fled a Burwood property and scaled the roof.<\/p>\n He jumped a string of backyard fences while being pursued by police, including the dog squad.<\/p>\n Winmar, the nephew of AFL great Nicky Winmar, was arrested soon after being found in a tree.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t let it bite me,\u201d he said four times about the dog as police attempted to get him to surrender and climb down.<\/p>\n \u201cGet on the f—ing ground, last warning,\u201d the dog squad officer said.<\/p>\n Body-worn camera footage of Winmar\u2019s interaction with police show he appeared to collapse and fall unconscious as he jumped down, before appearing to briefly come to. Police called an ambulance but then cancelled it, until Winmar suffered a suspected cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n Police called for an ambulance a second time, and it took Winmar to hospital, where he was placed in intensive care. He had earlier consumed a significant quantity of methamphetamine.<\/p>\n Winmar never fully regained consciousness and died in Box Hill Hospital two days later, on November 11, 2023.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cThe community and Jeffrey\u2019s family have a natural concern that his passing is one in an all-too-long line of Aboriginal men passing away in the setting of police contact or custody,\u201d Rachel Ellyard, the counsel assisting the coroner, told the inquest.<\/p>\n The court heard an internal police report commended the 11 officers involved in the arrest, and no disciplinary action was taken against them.<\/p>\n One officer told the coroner that although he was unaware Winmar was an Indigenous man when called to assist in his arrest, he wouldn\u2019t have done anything differently and believed appropriate risk assessments were conducted before and during the arrest.<\/p>\n He said Winmar was known to run from police and had outrun them in the past due to his speed and agility.<\/p>\n Winmar\u2019s mother, Ursula Winmar, said that shortly before his death, her son had started speaking to her more about learning humility, patience and about becoming the best version of himself he knew he could be.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the kind of person who shared that knowledge freely, like a gift he couldn\u2019t keep for himself. Jeffrey was 28. I am looking for justice for my son. I want people to be accountable for what happened to him,\u201d Ursula said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should not have had to come this far to seek the truth. Two years later, we are still in the dark about how he ended up in hospital with internal bleeding and organ failure.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil this country properly accounts for First Nations deaths in custody \u2013 and until those responsible for their care are genuinely held to account \u2013 there will be more Jeffreys. More mothers like me. More broken homes like ours. I have been robbed of my son.\u201d<\/p>\n Winmar\u2019s father, Jeffrey \u201cPepe\u201d Anderson, called for accountability. \u201cJeff wasn\u2019t a nobody. He was my boy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Nerita Waight, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said 626 Aboriginal people had died in custody in the three decades since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.<\/p>\n These included Veronica Nelson<\/a>, 37, and Joshua Kerr<\/a>, 32.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Jeffrey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9da934240acf6f87b8c6fdec9353d2be59fe0964.jpeg\")
Jeffrey Winmar, a 28-year-old Noongar man, suffered a medical episode while being arrested and later died in hospital.<\/p>\n![\"Winmar\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/94d8b6f0d7164a70166c3e4b0c9a0d1e19a6c7d9.jpeg\")
Winmar\u2019s sister Margaret and father Jeffrey Anderson take part in a smoking ceremony outside the Victorian Coroners Court.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n![\"Winmar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c4e3d210ed75baa32fb1a6341ee2debc4d8526af.jpeg\")
Winmar had started speaking about humility, patience and becoming the best version of himself, his mother says.<\/p>\n![\"Supreme](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ec549082b7cdd6440ea7feed243aa547ee826559.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fa093c62124e882a3d676f555316344fc17251ea.jpeg\")
Members of Winmar\u2019s family outside the Coroners Court on Monday.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a6d70eb24f354e08a921db8731046afe1a20efb1.jpeg\")
A coroner is examining Winmar\u2019s death in 2023.<\/p>\n