A 24-year-old Aboriginal man has died in custody in Alice Springs after being restrained when police intervened in an altercation at a Coles supermarket.
The Northern Territory police communications centre received reports at around 1.10pm Tuesday local time that a man and a security guard at the Coles were involved in an altercation, police said in a statement.
The incident had involved “a person who was placing items down the front of their clothing, who was confronted by security guards”, assistant commissioner Travis Wurst said on Tuesday.
“There was an altercation that occurred as a consequence of that confrontation. One of the security guards was assaulted.”
Two on-duty police officers in plain clothes were in the store at the time and restrained the man in an aisle.
“The male behaved rather aggressively and was placed onto the ground by those police officers. He was later identified as losing consciousness,” Wurst said.
He stopped breathing while still in the supermarket. CPR was attempted and St John ambulance called.
The man was taken to Alice Springs hospital by ambulance and was pronounced dead just after 2.20pm.
The incident is being treated as a death in custody. A senior commissioned officer has been placed in charge of this investigation, and major crime section detectives were travelling to Alice Springs to continue the investigation, police said.
A crime scene was established at the shopping centre, which will remain closed for the rest of Tuesday.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
