Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage rejects ‘intel gathering’ claim in Yuendumu police shooting

Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage has told an inquest lessons from an incident in which Kumanjayi Walker rushed at police with an axe ‘perhaps weren’t well received’.

NT Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage told the court ‘once you go and bang on the door that’s it’. Picture: Jason Walls

The actions of specialist police who tried to arrest Kumanjayi Walker before he was fatally shot were not conducting “intelligence gathering” as some of them had claimed, according to one of the Territory’s top cops.

Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage took the stand in the Alice Springs Local Court at an inquest into the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man’s death for the second day on Tuesday.

The court had previously heard the four members of the now disbanded Immediate Response Team had been “intelligence gathering” when they entered a house where they suspected Walker was hiding out in November 2019.

But under questioning from NT Police barrister Ian Freckelton KC, Mr Smalpage said speaking as a former Director of Intelligence for West Australian Police, their actions did not meet that definition.

“Intelligence gathering would generally consist of activities that were better preparing you for the activity that may occur for the executional phase of the plan,” he said.

“Access and egress routes, location of the house, where Kumanjayi Walker may frequent what vehicles he may be in, there’s lots and lots of other intelligence gathering activities that would assist you in supplementing your plan.”

Mr Smalpage said in his view, the officers had instead moved straight to the “execution phase”.

“There’s lots of other activities police can do that may assist in identifying the whereabouts of a person before you go and bang on the door,” he said.

“Once you go and bang on the door that’s it.”

Mr Smalpage said even if the IRT members had been confronted with a situation in which an immediate arrest was necessary, their decision to enter the house was “tactically unsound”, given an incident days earlier in which Mr Walker confronted police with an axe.

“It was almost identical in my mind (to the earlier incident),” he said.

“If there was elements to learn from it perhaps they weren’t well received.”

Earlier, Mr Smalpage apologised on behalf of the force for the teenager’s shooting death while acknowledging there remained “much yet to do to rebuild trust”.

“The Northern Territory Police force acknowledges the tragedy of Kumanjayi’s death both alone and in the context of grave and unjust history that includes events such as the Coniston massacre,” he said.

“The Northern Territory Police force has taken active steps and will continue to do so, (we) recognise there is much yet to do to rebuild trust between the community and the Northern Territory Police force through collaborative discussions and consultations.”

The inquest continues.