A Northern Territory First Nations man has died in custody

Northern Territory authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a First Nations man in custody on Tuesday.

According to a police press release, the 24-year-old man “stopped breathing” while being restrained by two officers at the Coles in Alice Springs.

Paramedics took the man to hospital for “critical care,” where he was pronounced dead.

Police are treating the incident as a death in custody.

Around 1:10pm on Tuesday, two plain-clothed police officers intervened in an altercation between a customer and a Coles security guard.

The officers restrained the 24-year-old man, putting him on the ground.

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“He was later identified as losing consciousness,” Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst told media.

Paramedics arrived at the scene and the man was taken to hospital, where he died at around 2:20pm.

The Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) tracks deaths in prison, police custody, and youth detention.

Since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 593 First Nations people have died in custody.

Eight of those deaths have occurred since January 2025.

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