00:00Another death in custody, this time in Tennant Creek.
00:06A 44-year-old Indigenous woman arrested on Christmas Day and taken to the town's police watch house.
00:13Less than 36 hours later, shortly after 1pm Saturday, she was dead.
00:19We reviewed the CCTV and at 12.34 she was in the cell alone and was seen to fall to the ground.
00:27At this stage, we believe it's a medical episode but we won't have a post-mortem conducted until later on in the week.
00:35Police say a health check was conducted when she arrived at the watch house and there were no signs of injury.
00:41Most watch houses in the NT have a custody nurse who can access real-time health information when people are taken into custody.
00:50But in Tennant Creek, that's not the case.
00:53More than 30 years after the 1991 Royal Commission, Aboriginal deaths in custody are now at their highest level for decades.
01:02This year in May, the death of 24-year-old Kumanjai White in Alice Springs sparked an outpouring of grief in vigils and rallies across the country.
01:12In Tennant Creek today, heightened tension.
01:16I have heard in Tennant Creek that there are a couple of people that are obviously angry and frustrated.
01:22NT Police quick to defend their in-house investigation.
01:26I have no issues with it. We investigate our own all the time. We're very good at it.
01:31And, you know, people talk about conflicts all the time but we legislate it to do it and we do it very well.
01:37Police say a post-mortem should be ready before the end of the week, which will determine any next steps.
01:44Police say a post-mortem should be ready before the end of the week.
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