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Lawyer for Peter Skeen, Indigenous man shot by Northern Territory police in Palmerston, seeking to get charges dropped

Lawyers for the man charged with assaulting the police officers who shot him six times in Palmerston, outside Darwin, earlier this year are seeking to have the charges against him withdrawn.

The defence team has also alleged an internal police investigation into the shooting may have been withheld, despite lawyers earlier being told no such investigation had been carried out.

Peter Skeen, 20, was left in a critical condition after the shooting in the Palmerston suburb of Gray in March.

Police said Mr Skeen was armed with a spear and attempting to throw it at officers when the shots were fired.

An internal "critical incident" investigation was launched immediately after the shooting, according to Assistant Commissioner Michael White at the time.

But Mr Skeen's defence lawyer, Clancy Dane, told the Darwin Local Court on Monday that he had been told no internal investigation was conducted.

He said despite that, he had since "received information" suggesting an investigation was carried out, which made the brief of evidence provided to him "incomplete".

Mr Dane said the Crown was seeking time to investigate the situation, which was confirmed by prosecutors.

He also told the court he had put a case to prosecutors to have all the charges against Mr Skeen withdrawn.

"The Crown is considering that at the moment, but it's doing further investigation [into whether an internal investigation was carried out]," prosecutor Lee Campbell told the court.

The remaining charges against Mr Skeen are assault police and going armed in public.

Mr Skeen was discharged from hospital after a months-long stay to continue undergoing rehabilitation.

NT Police said it does "not comment on matters still before the court".

The Office of Public Prosecutions has been contacted for comment.

The case is due to return to court at the end of October.

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