Violent crowds clashed with police outside a hospital in a remote Australian outback town on Thursday night, demanding authorities hand over an accused child killer.
Dramatic footage showed police dodging rocks and sticks while rioters smashed police cars and set one on fire. Police could be seen firing tear gas into the crowd and some smoking canisters were picked up and thrown back.
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole described the scene in Alice Springs, considered the gateway to Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) in the heart of the country’s desert, as “absolute anarchy”.
Jefferson Lewis, 47, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering a five-year-old girl now known as Kumanjayi Little Baby, an alias given by her family as a cultural measure by the Warapiri First Nation to avoid naming the deceased during mourning.
Baby Kumanjayi went missing on Sunday night. -NTPFES
Lewis has been the subject of an intense manhunt in central Australia since Saturday night after he was seen holding hands with the child in the hours after he was reported missing.
After a four-day search, in which the Aboriginal community and local police worked closely together, the girl’s body was found by a river about five kilometers from where she was last seen.
Lewis was pursued not by the police but by an angry crowd, who were seen beating the alleged murderer in an act of “vigilante justice.”
“He was unconscious when we arrested him and was receiving medical treatment when St John Ambulance and police officers were attacked,” Chief Dore said.
Doyle said Lewis was “pretty badly beaten” and taken to Alice Springs Hospital, where hundreds of people rushed to demand his killer be handed over to them.
Valpieri elders and a family spokesman called for calm after the violence.
“What happened this week was not our way,” Senior Yapa (Valpyrie) Elder Robin Granites said in a statement.
“As a result of community action this man has been caught and we must now allow justice to be served while we take time to mourn little baby Kumanjayi and support our family.”
complex relationship
Relations between police and Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory (NT) are often tense. A coroner’s inquest in 2025 found “clear evidence of deep-rooted systemic and structural racism within the Northern Territory Police” after Valpierre man Kumanjayi Walker was shot dead by a police officer in 2019.
Speaking on Friday, local Aboriginal elder Michael Liddell said the recent violence had “destroyed” community unity in the face of tragedy.
“I think using the word ‘payback’ in this context just fuels violence,” Liddell told reporters.
A 47-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of killing five-year-old baby Kumanjayi after a community disturbance broke out outside Alice Springs Hospital. – Australian Broadcasting Corporation/Handout/via Reuters
“There is a system in place here where a person is detained and Western rules will deal with that person.”
Police said they planned to prosecute those involved.
“You will face the law just like Jefferson Lewis faced the law,” Police Chief Dole said Friday.
Girls and women at risk
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his condolences to baby Kumanjayi’s family, saying in a post on Thursday that “no words can describe the immense grief her family has experienced. They are in the thoughts of all Australians at this time of their terrible loss.”
Aboriginal women and girls are more likely than non-Aboriginal women to be killed, raped or assaulted, according to findings from a federal Senate inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
The Albanian government responded to the 2024 report by acknowledging that “Indigenous women and children suffer disproportionate rates of homicide, domestic and sexual violence, child removal and incarceration, and poorer outcomes in health, housing, education and employment” and pledging to adopt a series of recommendations, including stricter monitoring of potential perpetrators.
Jefferson Lewis charged with killing baby Cumanjayi – Northern Territory Police Force
Defendant’s history of violence
Police say Lewis, who has a violent criminal record, was out of jail six days before the Koomanjay baby went missing on Saturday after being charged with assault and domestic violence.
“This is a known perpetrator. There are questions about why this happened so soon after he was released,” said Independent Aboriginal Senator Lidia Thorpe.
The mother of baby Kumanjayi thanked those searching for her child in a statement.
“The rest of our lives will be difficult without you,” she wrote.
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