A man has been fatally injured at a unit complex in Mawson Lakes, in Adelaide’s north, late on Sunday night.
He was taken to hospital after SA Police were called to the unit just before midnight, but died a short time later.
The “confronting” incident is now being treated as a death in police custody.
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The 44-year-old man had been hospitalised “in an agitated state” earlier Sunday morning after police were called to reports of a man “threatening people” at a Lightsview address at 5.27am, SA Police assistant commissioner Scott Duval said.
Following the man’s same-day release from hospital, multiple triple-0 calls were made about 11.58pm to report that a man had broken into a Mawson Lakes unit and was threatening a woman known to him with a sword.
The 41-year-old woman had barricaded herself inside a room in the unit and was later hospitalised with a non-life threatening laceration to her arm.
“Police understand the two are not in a relationship but have known each other for a number of years,” Duval said.
The incident is “not being treated as a domestic incident, but as an incident between two people that are known to each other.”
SA Police attempted to negotiate with the man through a partially open unit door, and eventually successfully deployed a taser, allowing officers to enter the unit.
Officers restrained the man before they identified that he had significant injuries, believed to be self-inflicted, and began to instead render first aid, Duval said.
He was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital again, where he later died.
“There was a significant amount of blood within the unit, and this was an extremely confronting scene for the attending police.”
“The matter has been declared a death in custody, and it is subject to a coronial investigation,” Duval said.
“A commissioner’s inquiry has also been launched to investigate the circumstances around the police attendance, and the prior involvement with the man.”
According to police, the incident was very confronting and officers who attended are receiving appropriate support.
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