The Northern Territory Coroner has handed down findings from a multi-year inquest into the killing of 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker.
NT Police officer Zachary Rolfe fatally shot Walker in 2019, after hehad left a rehab facility for a family funeral.
Rolfe was found not guilty of murder in 2022 but was stood down from the force the following year.
NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage found Walker’s death was “preventable”. Armitage also found that Rolfe was a racist, but said she could not definitively find that his racism was a “contributing cause” of Walker’s death.
What happened
In November 2019, Kumanjayi Walker left an alcohol rehabilitation facility in Alice Springs to attend a family funeral. Police were instructed to arrest him.
On 9 November, he was found in the remote town of Yuendumu by Rolfe and fellow officer Adam Eberl.
In an altercation, Walker stabbed Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of surgical scissors. While Eberl was trying to restrain Walker, Rolfe shot him several times.
Walker was taken to Yuendumu police station, where he died.
Inquest
In the NT, a coronial inquest is held when a person dies in “unexpected, unnatural or violent” circumstances, including “when a person was held in, or immediately before death, was held in care or custody”.
An inquest is not the same as a court hearing. A coroner cannot find someone guilty of a crime.
At the end of an inquest, the coroner may make recommendations to improve public health and safety.
After Rolfe was found not guilty of Walker’s murder, an inquest was called.
The coronial inquest focused on understanding the factors that led to Walker’s death.
In her opening remarks, Armitage said: “There is more to learn from, and more we need to try and understand about, this story.”
The inquest heard from a range of people, including Walker’s family, and Rolfe, who had sought not to appear. He was granted “self-incrimination” protection, meaning he didn’t face legal consequences for certain admissions.
Armitage delivered her findings in Yuendumu.
Kumanjayi Walker
The inquest heard Walker had hearing issues, and had been exposed to alcohol, cannabis, and petrol sniffing since he was 13. A psychologist who had worked with him told the inquest he had “no capacity for self-regulation” and was dissociated from his body.
Walker’s family life was violent and he was not able to cope with school.
The inquest heard Walker “exhibited controlling and threatening behaviours” towards his partner as a teenager, and assaulted her, for which he was arrested.
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The coroner acknowledged Walker’s offending “may have been a product of the domestic violence” he was “exposed to as a child,” but said this did not “make it acceptable”.
Armitage found Walker had “a history of trauma and poor impulse control,” and had spent more than half of his adolescence (13-18) “under some form of restraint,” including bail, court orders, and juvenile detention.
The coroner said these restrictions and detentions did not rehabilitate him or stop him from re-offending.
Zachary Rolfe
Armitage said Rolfe had been able to “present his version of events fully and fairly” at the inquest.
She noted that he was an inexperienced officer with a large workload at the time of the shooting. However, she said his behaviour “reflected very poorly on him,” including racist views and a lack of respect for both authority and police in remote communities.
The inquest heard Rolfe applied to four police forces around the country in early 2016. He either lied or failed to disclose important information on each application.
This included previous drug use, and charges related to theft, public nuisance and violent behaviour. When Queensland Police found out he had lied, it blocked him from re-applying for 10 years.
Rolfe underwent a psychological test while applying to the NT Police. It found he was “less likely than many others” to own up to a mistake, was more aggressive than others, and showed the potential to resent authority.
The inquest heard the NT Police force did not check Rolfe’s criminal record and considered him “an excellent candidate”.
Shooting
Armitage said Rolfe and Walker’s lives were “far removed” from each other.
“That is part of the reason why neither man understood why or how the
other would react that day,” she said.
Armitage added that Walker had threatened two police officers with a weapon earlier in the week he was killed, meaning Rolfe and Eberl should have approached the arrest “carefully”.
“The cost of poor planning is the increased risk of using deadly
force,” Armitage said.
After Rolfe shot Walker, he and Eberl “dragged him to the car,” the inquest heard. The officers’ treatment of Walker distressed his family and was not in line with police policy.
At the Yuendumu police station, Rolfe gave Walker first aid. The local health clinic was closed and the station did not have supplies to treat him. Walker’s condition soon deteriorated and he died.
A senior Aboriginal community police officer told those inside to lock the station door because some were throwing rocks at the building. Walker’s adopted mother remained at the house where he was shot, while his grandparents who lived nearby were not notified of his death until the next morning.
Recommendations
Armitage made 32 recommendations for NT Police and the Territory Government.
These included reviewing youth services in Yuendumu, and creating programs targeted at young people in the justice system “with a view to reducing offending behaviour.”
She recommended NT Police develop a policy of officers liaising with Aboriginal community officers “in any planned interaction or arrest of an Aboriginal person,” and to intervene with officers who exhibit poor behaviour earlier.
