‘Sorry for your loss,’ NSW police officer tells family of Aboriginal man who drowned in river

Family members of Gordon Copeland, including his partner Josephine Brown, at a protest march in Moree last year. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

A New South Wales police officer has offered condolences to the grieving family of Gordon Copeland at an inquest into the Gomeroi man’s death.

The NSW coroner is examining the circumstances surrounding the death of Copeland, who died in the Gwydir River in the early hours of 10 July 2021.