A Darwin-born Indigenous activist believes "genuine fear" is rippling through the community after an Aboriginal teenager was shot multiple times by police on Tuesday in a suburb south of Darwin.
Northern Territory police said a 19-year-old Indigenous man was shot at six times after allegedly threatening officers with a spear during an incident in the Palmerston suburb of Gray on Tuesday morning.
NT health authorities said the teenager was still in a critical condition in hospital late on Wednesday afternoon after spending most of Tuesday in surgery.
Community advocate Thomas Mayor, a Torres Strait Islander man who was born on Larrakia country in Darwin, described the incident as "very concerning".
"People have to understand that we are talking about a human being here," Mr Mayor said.
He said there was "genuine fear" rippling through the community in the aftermath of the police shooting.
Police on Tuesday announced a full investigation would be launched into the incident, but Mr Mayor said this probe must be independent of the force.
"Police shouldn't be investigating themselves," Mr Mayor said.
"We don't think that is the most transparent way or the best way to investigate what police themselves have done."
On Tuesday, police said they were investigating a potential link between the shooting and an alleged domestic violence incident at the same scene earlier that day.
Today, police confirmed that had "now ruled out a link" between the two.
'I heard this commotion'
One Gray resident, who said he witnessed the incident, told the ABC "there was a lot of noise" at the time of the shooting.
"I heard this commotion and I thought it was an altercation, I thought it was a fight," he said.
The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said he then saw a man appear in a driveway at a nearby property carrying a "long fishing spear with three prongs on it".
"He didn't look at me, he didn't have any eye contact with me," he said.
The resident said the incident unfolded quickly.
"From the time [the man] entered the premises, from this driveway here, to the time that police apprehended him, it'd be a minute," he said.
The resident said he didn't see the moment police fired, only that he heard three "pop-pop-pop" noises.
"I definitely only heard three shots, but some people say there were six shots," he said.
'Extremely dangerous situation'
On Wednesday, Assistant Commissioner Michael White confirmed one officer fired six shots at the man while another had deployed their taser.
Mr Mayor said, "using a gun should be a last resort", for officers.
It is not clear if all six shots struck the teenager.
Northern Territory Police Association president Paul McCue described the incident on Tuesday as an "extremely dangerous situation".
"Obviously, it was an extremely dangerous situation, we now know the gentleman [who was shot] was carrying at least one spear, possibly two, and it sounds like he's advanced on the officers and thank goodness they made it home last night," Mr McCue said.
When asked why one officer would have drawn a gun and the other a taser, Mr McCue said police were trained in "use of force options".
He cautioned about jumping to conclusions about what unfolded on Tuesday morning until the investigation had finished.
"We just want to make sure our police are not subject to the misconception that they're out there and they're heavy-handed, or any of that nonsense, because that's not the case.
"We don't know the full circumstance of what took place [on Tuesday], that's obviously subject to a long investigation and we've got some experienced people working on that."
