A young Aboriginal man is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot by Northern Territory Police in the town of Palmerston outside Darwin.
Police said they were responding to an earlier incident at 9am on Tuesday morning when they were met by the man, who was allegedly armed with a weapon, in the suburb of Gray.
NT Police Assistant Commissioner Michael White said officers requested the person to “drop the weapon” before firing a number of shots.
St John Ambulance was called to the incident and the man was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital where he is currently under treatment.
NITV News spoke to a number of neighbours at the scene who said the man was a “young fella” known to the local community.
Local woman Rita Cronin told NITV News the man was a cousin.
Raymond Hayes, Jamie Lee McPhee and Rita Cronin attended the scene to see if their cousin was alright. Source: Sarah Collard
"So we come down here to have a look at the crime scene and we were trying to ask police what happened and they won’t give us any information about what happened," she said.
"We feel upset and didn’t know what to do we thought he was going to pass away. We still don’t know at the moment if he is alright or not."
Police will be investigating the incident, which will be overseen by the professional standards command.
Mr White said the investigation will examine the “full circumstances of the use of force that occurred”.
Whether appropriate force was taken, the use of verbal cues and the distance of the man will form part of the investigation.
“At this time, we are certainly making sure that all people involved in this are being provided with the support that they need,” said Mr White.
