{"id":62587,"date":"2026-08-01T00:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/62587\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:09:17","slug":"family-pays-tribute-to-aboriginal-man-who-died-in-police-custody-in-adelaides-cbd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/62587\/","title":{"rendered":"Family pays tribute to Aboriginal man who died in police custody in Adelaide’s CBD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family members of a young Aboriginal man who died in custody in Adelaide’s CBD say they and their community have been overwhelmed by sorrow and grief.<\/p>\n

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that this story includes the name of an Indigenous person who has died.<\/p>\n

Mourners last night gathered for a private vigil in tribute to the 23-year-old at Kingston Gardens on West Terrace, close to where the man died on Thursday, July 23<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The man, Kunmanara Ingkatji \u2014 whom the ABC has been given permission to name \u2014 was from Pukatja, also known as Ernabella, on South Australia’s A\u1e49angu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.<\/p>\n

Police last week said that he became unresponsive after resisting arrest and died at the scene, and that his death was now the subject of multiple investigations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the 30-odd people who attended Friday night’s vigil were extended family and Indigenous community members, including Jennifer Ingkatji and Nyunmiti Burton, who are older sisters of the man’s mother.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mourners took turns to light candles in memory of the 23-year-old man. (ABC News: Peta Doherty)<\/p>\n

Ms Burton remembered her nephew as a “beautiful child”, and said that when police told her of his death, she was so shocked “it nearly took my breath away”.<\/p>\n

“My spirit went down, deep inside,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I was just frozen. I was standing. I was just calling my sister’s name. I was nearly [having a] heart attack.<\/p>\n

“I gave the phone to Jennifer and the same thing happened to my sister.”<\/p>\n

Ms Ingkatji said she had been left grief-stricken, as had her community.<\/p>\n

“They are still crying,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I was really shocked, you know. I nearly had a fit.<\/p>\n

“After the police told us, me and my sister couldn’t sleep ’til sunrise because we’d been crying, crying, crying.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jennifer Ingkatji says she is grief-stricken. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)<\/p>\n

Mourners were openly wailing as people took turns to light candles in memory of the 23-year-old man.<\/p>\n

Some attendees wore bright yellow \u2014 the man’s favourite colour \u2014 and held yellow flowers in their hands as they sang Presbyterian hymns in Pitjantjatjara.<\/p>\n

The private vigil was organised by Pitjantjatjara woman Melissa Thompson, who is also an aunty of the man.<\/p>\n

“He was loving and helpful and kind, and I’m going to miss his smiles and his laugh,” she said of the 23-year-old.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow<\/p>\n

Some attendees wore yellow, which was the man’s favourite colour. (ABC News: Peta Doherty)<\/p>\n

Ms Thompson said the man’s death had “made us heartbroken”.<\/p>\n

“The community back in Ernabella, they are missing him so deeply. They have a sorrow camp and [are] thinking of us today, and they’re the ones who gave us the permission [for this vigil].<\/p>\n

“So we stand for them and the rest of the family.<\/p>\n

“We are still grieving and we want to have the memorial here \u2026 and the loving ones to come together.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Melissa Thompson says members of the man’s community “have a sorrow camp”. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)<\/p>\n

Ms Burton said the vigil had been good for the community.<\/p>\n

“People are thinking about us from Northern Territory, South Australia, they are all thinking about us,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Ms Burton says the vigil had been good for the community. (ABC News: Peta Doherty)<\/p>\n

SA Police last week said the circumstances of the man’s death were being examined by three separate investigations.<\/p>\n

It said the Major Crime Investigation branch was preparing a report for the coroner.<\/p>\n

A Police Commissioner’s Inquiry and an investigation conducted by the Ethical and Professional Standards Branch, overseen by the Office of Public Integrity, are also underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family members of a young Aboriginal man who died in custody in Adelaide’s CBD say they and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[73487,73488,2312,395,31375,3743,2717,2308,73486,59236],"class_list":["post-62587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-23-year-old","tag-23-year-old-man","tag-aboriginal","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-cbd","tag-custody","tag-death","tag-indigenous","tag-kunmanara-ingkatji","tag-west-terrace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}