Crossbows and bows stolen in one of two ram raids of a Darwin business have been used to shoot at least four people in Wadeye, sources have told the NT Independent, but the thefts and the shootings have not been made public by the NT Police in a continuation of authorities suppressing information about violence in the remote community.
NT Police are investigating more than $50,000 in property damage to a property on Gap Road in Alice Springs overnight.
An internal investigation into well-being and mental health in the NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services will not be made public, Police Minister Kate Worden told Budget Estimates on Monday, adding she did not know when its recommendations would be implemented.
The Alice Springs office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was broken into Sunday night, but the NT Police media unit did not identify the office in a public statement that was only issued after the matter was raised at Estimates hearings.
Two “family groups” in Darwin’s northern suburbs allegedly used an axe and “sticks” to inflict injuries to “a number of people” early Saturday morning, culminating in a stolen vehicle being used to allegedly run a man down on McMillans Road, NT Police said.
New HR and well-being staff positions have been advertised by the NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services the same day the NT Independent revealed that an unreleased internal review showed that the tri-service had no defined strategy to deal with mental health, following the suicides of five serving or former police officers in four months.
Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has told Estimates he has a lot of support within the NT Police force despite nine police union branches calling for a vote of no confidence in him, and once again in a confusing and cryptic public performance, said there were “many mistruths”, “misguided beliefs” and “disgusting commentary” about him in the media, that he could not discuss because of unnamed “processes” being undertaken.
Nine people allegedly connected to a drug syndicate operating out of Tennant Creek were arrested and charged on Wednesday, NT Police said, as part of an operation to disrupt the supply of commercial cannabis in the Barkly region.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested and charged after an allegedly unprovoked assaulted on two women at an Alice Springs servo, NT Police said.
A Royal Australian Navy patrol boat and the NT Police joined together to rescue three fishos from their overturned boat near Charles Point after those on board set off an emergency beacon.
A 47-year-old man who allegedly attempted to smuggle more than six kilograms of cannabis into the NT inside a hidden compartment of his car has been arrested and charged in Alice Springs, NT Police said.
NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services still has no defined strategy for dealing with mental health and well-being, according to an internal report Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker raised at last month’s funeral for an officer who killed themselves, while two other serving and former officers have since taken their lives in recent weeks.
