{"id":826357,"date":"2026-07-27T06:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T06:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/826357\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T06:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T06:12:09","slug":"family-of-indigenous-man-who-died-in-custody-launch-legal-action-over-decision-not-to-charge-police-deaths-in-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/826357\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Indigenous man who died in custody launch legal action over decision not to charge police | Deaths in custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a young Aboriginal man who died after being restrained by police in an Alice Springs supermarket<\/a> has launched legal action after the officers involved were not prosecuted.<\/p>\n

Kumanjayi White, 24, died in the Coles supermarket in the Northern Territory<\/a> city on 27 May, 2025 after two plainclothes police officers held him down in the confectionary aisle, sparking national outrage and rallies calling for an independent investigation.<\/p>\n

His family were told on the eve of the first anniversary of White\u2019s death that no charges would be laid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the family confirmed that they had launched legal action in the NT supreme court seeking answers over the decision.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

They were entitled to know the reasons under the Northern Territory Victims of Crime Charter and ask for a reconsideration of the case, the family\u2019s lawyer, George Newhouse, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t do that because they\u2019ve never been given reasons, and they don\u2019t know who made the decision,\u201d the National Justice Project chief executive said.<\/p>\n

In May, the NT director of public prosecutions said no charges would be laid due to there being \u201cno reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution\u201d.<\/p>\n

NT police earlier rejected calls for an independent inquiry.<\/p>\n

They also refused to stand the officers down or release CCTV footage of the incident, as demanded by White\u2019s family, led by his grandfather, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves.<\/p>\n

Hargraves said there had been a lack of transparency from authorities since his grandson\u2019s life was \u201cviolently cut short\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said from day one that we did not trust this process,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody will tell us who actually made the decision [that no charges would be laid].<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deserve to know all the information about his death and about the process including who decided that no one should be charged and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hargraves said the family would keep fighting for a \u201cgenuinely independent investigation\u201d into the death in custody.<\/p>\n

White suffered from cognitive impairment and was in care. Police allege he was shoplifting and assaulted a security guard before being held down, an allegation his family denies.<\/p>\n

Newhouse said the family was seeking orders from the supreme court to identify who made the decision that no charges would be laid.<\/p>\n

Once the family knew who made the decision and the basis on which it was made, they would consider whether to challenge the call not to prosecute, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lack of transparency, the lack of a proper basis for the decision, the lack of a \u2018sorry\u2019, and the anonymity of the decision maker all give rise to serious concerns,\u201d Newhouse said.<\/p>\n

An inquest into White\u2019s death is scheduled to be held in Alice Springs in April 2027.<\/p>\n

Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN<\/a> on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a young Aboriginal man who died after being restrained by police in an Alice Springs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-826357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}