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Family broken as no charges brought against police for Kumanjayi White’s death

33 0
06.06.2026

The Northern Territory police announced on May 26 that the two police officers who wrestled 24-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White to the floor of an Mparntwe/Alice Springs supermarket will not be charged.

The police last year held Kumanjayi, a man with disabilities, in the prone position until he stopped breathing. It sparked protests for justice around the country.

The prosecutor flew to the remote community of Lajamanu that day to deliver the news to White’s mothers’ family. NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole announced the decision the day before the one-year anniversary of the young man’s death.

Dole said that the NT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had said there are “no reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution”, after an independent expert review, run by the Queensland Police, deemed the police use of force appropriate.

The case is closed, with the top cop saying the cause of Kumanjayi White’s death is “equivocal”.

The announcement, delivered on National Sorry Day, continues on from a series of unjust decisions regarding the deaths of First Nations people in the NT.

White’s family is dumbfounded that two plainclothes police, who held their son down until he died, over a misunderstanding about shoplifting in a Coles, can walk.

The family have been repeatedly denied updates on the case and now it is over with no explanation as to how Kumanjayi White died.

‘Our trust is broken’

“Our hearts are breaking. We have no hope. When will we have our justice? How can we keep living like this? After this, how many of us will be crushed? Killed?” asked Kumanjayi White’s mothers’ family on May........

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