Kumanjayi Walker inquest hears Zach Rolfe’s colleague Adam Eberl was not aware of an early morning arrest plan

An officer who wrestled with Kumanjayi Walker as he was shot has apologised in court for a potential inference police were out to ‘exact some revenge’ over ‘axe incident’.

The police officer who wrestled with Kumanjayi Walker as he was fatally shot by Constable Zach Rolfe had “no idea” an arrest plan had been written up for the following morning, an inquest has heard.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted on all charges over the shooting in March, with the other officer involved in the botched arrest, Constable Adam Eberl, testifying at an inquest into the fatality on Monday.

Counsel assisting the Coroner, Peggy Dwyer, reminded Constable Eberl that Constable Rolfe had told the jury he had discussed the arrest plan with Yuendumu Sergeant in charge, Julie Frost, before the rest of the Immediate Response Team arrived on November 9, 2019.

Constable Adam Eberl outside the Alice Springs Local Court during an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Jason Walls

“You had no idea prior to that time that Julie Frost had an arrest plan for Kumanjayi, to get him at 5am in the morning, correct? And that is something you would have wanted to know?” she asked.

Constable Eberl replied: “Definitely.”

The firearms instructor also agreed that he “certainly wouldn’t have disobeyed that plan”, if he was aware it had been signed off by Superintendent Jody Nobbs, saying all members of the IRT present that day should have been involved in discussing it to “minimise the risk of any adverse confrontation”.

“So all those pieces of information, the 5am arrest plan that Sergeant Frost had in mind, the availability of (local officer) Felix Alefaio as a resource, that was crucial for you to understand prior to going out into the comm that day?” Dr Dwyer asked.

Constable Eberl replied: “Yes.”

“Are you disappointed that wasn’t provided to you?” – “Definitely, yes.”

Constable Eberl admitted that having no plan as to “how Kumanjayi would be engaged with” if they found him inside house 577 was “probably not the best planning”.

“But that’s how we operate generally with general duties when you’re looking for an arrest target,” he said.

Constable Adam Eberl outside the Alice Springs Local Court during an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Jason Walls

“Unless it’s designated that the arrest target, the situation, is high risk, it’s going to be treated like your general duties response, potentially.”

The officer said while an incident in which Mr Walker had rushed at police armed with an axe three days earlier was “high risk”, that didn’t necessarily mean the arrest on November 9 was also “high risk”.

“There was the potential for it to be high risk, but he’s not walking around the community with a weapon, if he was, then that would be high risk,” he said.

“He has the propensity to raise the level of the situation to high risk, but it wouldn’t have been designated as that.”

Constable Eberl also accepted that it would have been confronting for community members to see police carrying assault rifles, and said he regretted comments he made to a woman who questioned why another officer looked like he was “aiming to shoot someone”.

“You said ‘We don’t have a holster for that one, so we have to carry it’, and then you added ‘So someone probably shouldn’t run at police with an axe, hey’,” Dr Dwyer said.

“You’ve reflected on that comment in the years since you made it, what do you think now of the fact that you said what you said?”

Constable Eberl said he was “just basically stating facts, but the last comment on hindsight, it was probably not required, definitely”.

He agreed with Dr Dwyer that the comment was “sarcastic”, “uncalled for” and “inappropriate”.

“Can you understand, from her perspective as a member of the community, standing there with her children, that she might think that police were there to exact some revenge for what happened on the 6th of November?” Dr Dwyer asked.

“Now that’s not what you meant by it, is it, but it’s a good reason why you have to be particularly professional in those circumstances?”

Constable Eberl replied: “Definitely.”

“If I saw her, I’d apologise for saying that, it was probably a little bit scary, I suppose, for her children and things like that, so yeah.”

The inquest continues.