by Victoria Laurie
from The Australian
WEST Australian police have been warned against complacency after an injured Aboriginal man who was taken into police custody later died.
Hendrick Njana, 24, from Balgo community, near Broome, was injured in an alcohol-fuelled fight at a Broome roadhouse on Saturday and was arrested with his attacker for causing a public disturbance.
He was taken to Broome Regional Hospital for treatment, but later put in a cell in the Broome lock-up. Police discovered him unconscious about 4.30am, and he was flown by a medical emergency flight to Perth. He died in the intensive care unit of Royal Perth Hospital yesterday.
Kimberley District Superintendent Murray Smalpage said the incident would be classified as a death in custody, and a report prepared for the state Coroner.
Aboriginal Legal Service executive director Dennis Eggington said the man's death raised questions about the police decision to place an injured man in the lock-up.
"It sends a clear message that where people are apprehended with obvious injuries, the best place for them is in hospital where they can get proper medical care," he said.
"Having a person put into a police cell and go unconscious raises alarm bells that police may have become too complacent after a relatively long period of few deaths in custody."
Western Australia suffered a spate of Aboriginal deaths in custody in the 1980s.
A 1991 report by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations, including that Aboriginal people should be arrested only as a last resort, and not for petty crimes such as public drunkenness.
The Broome man is the first custody-related death in Western Australia since January last year. An Aboriginal elder collapsed in a prison van while being transferred to Kalgoorlie in stifling heat, and died a short time later in hospital.
In 2006, a 35-year-old Aboriginal man died after a violent struggle with four police officers during a home invasion in Perth. Father of three Carl Woods stopped breathing after he was put into a police van.
The Coroner later found that Mr Woods had died from a heart attack due to a pre-existing heart disease, substance abuse and exertion, and not excessive use of force by police.
A 28-year-old Broome man has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Njana, but police say the charge could be upgraded following a postmortem examination.
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