Fugitive Jermaine Austral, who has now been arrested, stabbed a man in the back in a home invasion the week before he allegedly broke into a Johnston house with a gun, sources have told the NT Independent – information the NT Police have not disclosed to the public.

Detective Sergeant Michael Ordelman said in a late Friday afternoon statement Mr Austral was arrested at unspecified time on Friday at a Batchelor house “without incident” and was expected to be charged on Saturday.

On Friday morning Sgt Ordelman said in a statement that police had established a cordon around a house in Batchelor Mr Austral had been staying at on Thursday, using the Territory Response Group, negotiators, the Dog Operations Unit, the Serious Crime Squad, and Strike Force Trident members.

However, he said that on Thursday the 27-year-old had eluded police once again and was not found at the house. Police said they found his car nearby and believe he ran off into the bush. They said they suspected he was on foot somewhere in the greater Batchelor area, with police having used a dog to locate him.

Sources have told the NT Independent that Mr Austral broke into a home last week in the northern suburbs and stabbed a man in the back, with the weapon coming very close to the spinal chord – information the police have not told the public. They said the man was taken to hospital. The man, who was known to Mr Austral, had been sleeping before the attack, the sources said.

A further source said Mr Austral had a handgun, but it is unclear whether he still has it as it was not mentioned in the Friday press release.

Police had referred to Mr Austral using a firearm in a home break-in in Johnston on Sunday at about 2:10pm, which police did not tell the public about until 24 hours later, despite having used the TRG and an armoured vehicle to try and arrest him later in Karama, and despite warning the public not go near him.

NT Police also did not explain why they had taken 24-hours to inform they public there was a man with a gun on the loose, and why there was no description of Mr Austral released until Wednesday. Police have never released a photo of him.

NT Police have not told the public that Mr Austral stabbed the man despite being asked about it by the NT Independent on both Monday and Friday.

On Wednesday morning, Acting Assistant Commissioner Matt Hollamby told Mix 104.9 police were looking for Mr Austral over a “very serious crime” that he did not specify and host Katie Woolf did not ask him what the alleged crime was.

The Monday press release did not mention that after the Johnston break-in police used the TRG’s Bear Cat armoured vehicle at a house in Karama. They later admitted it when asked by the NT News, after photos of the vehicle and the tactical group officers, along with accounts of what happened, were published on the Karama Community NT Australia Facebook page

In March 2019, Austral was jailed for up to five years, sentenced alongside his criminal sidekick Joshua Davis, after he broke out of Alice Springs jail and engaged in a crime spree by stealing a truck from the Aileron roadhouse owner.

He pulled a 30cm knife on a tourist at another roadhouse and smashed this way into another roadhouse with two others, stealing more than $9000 worth of goods, and causing thousands more in damage.

Austral was later arrested in Broken Hill after being the target of a police pursuit, and was extradited to the Territory in January 2017.

On Friday, Sgt Ordelman said detectives had been deployed to Katherine late on Wednesday afternoon as part of the manhunt where officers had been told Mr Austral had driven his sliver Subaru Forester into Batchelor, where he was staying.