2004 Redfern riots

On the morning of Saturday 14 February 2004, the 17-year-old Aboriginal Australian boy was riding his bicycle downhill while a police vehicle was patrolling the nearby area.

According to New South Wales Police, he collided with a protruding gutter and was flung into the air and impaled on a 1.2-metre (3 ft 11 in) high fence outside a block of units off Phillip Street, Waterloo, causing penetrating injuries of the neck and chest.

At the conclusion of the coronial inquest, NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney was interviewed on ABC Radio and gave this explanation of the distinction: "I think if you were to ask the person on the street the definition between, and not a Concise Oxford Dictionary definition, but if you were to ask somebody their interpretation of being followed and being pursued I think they are two distinct and clear actions.

Moroney supported the driver of the police truck, Senior Constable Michael Hollingsworth, in his refusal to give evidence.

There was an outstanding arrest warrant in Hickey's name, but police have consistently maintained that the patrol car was searching for a different individual, wanted in connection with a violent bag snatch at Redfern railway station earlier the same day.

[citation needed] On the evening of 15 February, Aboriginal and non-Indigenous youths and adults, most of them from The Block, the Waterloo estate and other inner city housing precincts gathered at Eveleigh Street quickly after the word of the death spread.

The violence escalated into a full-scale riot around the Block, during which Redfern railway station was briefly set alight, suffering superficial damage.

The riot continued into the early morning, until police used fire brigade water hoses to disperse the crowd.