SYDNEY
An angry crowd clashed with Australian police outside a hospital treating the suspected killer of a five-year-old Indigenous girl in the outback town of Alice Springs. Images on local media Friday showed teargas in the air, a police van in flames, and crowds yelling at armed officers keeping people at bay during the overnight confrontation.
The violence followed the discovery Thursday of a body south of Alice Springs believed to be that of the little girl, referred to at her family’s request as Kumanjayi Little Baby.
She had disappeared from an Indigenous community camp called Old Timers late on Saturday night, sparking a vast, days-long search on foot, horseback, and by helicopter that gripped much of the country. Police said a formal autopsy would be held on the child’s body, which was found about five kilometres (three miles) from the camp. Hours after her body was found, police announced they had arrested the suspect, Jefferson Lewis.
‘He was unconscious’
Lewis was beaten until he was unconscious after turning himself in to Indigenous community members on Thursday evening at a camp by Alice Springs, in central Australia.
When police and emergency services intervened, they too came under attack, said Northern Territory Police Force Commissioner Martin Dole.
