Zach Rolfe’s colleague told to ‘expect to be arrested yourself’ after murder charge

‘There’s lefties everywhere’: Zach Rolfe’s colleague warned him ‘don’t trust these snakes’ as other officers were ‘covering their own arse’ in wake of the Yuendumu shooting, a court has heard.

A police officer paired up with Zach Rolfe on the night he fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker was told to “expect to be arrested yourself” after his fellow cop was charged with murder, a court has heard.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted on all charges following the fatal shooting in Yuendumu in November 2019, now the subject of an ongoing inquest in the Alice Springs Local Court.

On Thursday, his Immediate Response Team colleague on the night, James Kirstenfeldt, told the court he had been invited to Constable Rolfe’s home to “(get) on the beers” in the days following Mr Walker’s death.

“I think initially, the text was something about a debrief and I didn’t know anything about it and I asked about it and then someone, I think it might have actually been Rolfe, said it was code for beers,” he said.

“I don’t think there was actually a debrief, my interpretation of the term ‘debrief’ was someone mucking about with the terminology, just so we could go and have some beers.”

Constable Kirstenfeldt said while he didn’t want to “talk shop” outside of work, other officers began discussing the shooting and he sent Constable Rolfe a series of text messages, warning him not to engage with them.

“Stop talking to these c***s, lawyer, lawyer, lawyer, they are covering their own arse,” he wrote.

“You left and didn’t get to see the aftermath of the arse covering, stop talking to them, they are f***ing covering their own arse.

“Don’t trust these snake f***s, lawyer told you not to comment.”

Constable James Kirstenfeldt said he was concerned the lower ranks would get ‘thrown under the bus’. Picture: Jason Walls

Constable Kirstenfeldt told counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, while there were sergeants present at the barbecue, he had “no idea” who he was referring to in the texts.

“My sentiment of this was, being of the lowest rank of the whole incident and all that, is the old expression, if it rolls down hill, that it’s probably going to be people of lower ranks getting thrown under the bus,” he said.

“So I think there was a bit of a sentiment that that was going to occur, I don’t know who I’m referring to in this, like I said, I was drinking beers.”

Constable Kirstenfeldt said in hindsight, the gathering was “totally inappropriate” and had “the real potential to contaminate any evidence that (Constable Rolfe) might give later on”.

In describing the barbecue in a later police interview read out in court on Thursday, Constable Kirstenfeldt told investigators “we got on the beers, just with the boys”.

“But you know what the town’s like, there’s lefties everywhere, looking over your shoulder, so you can’t really talk shop or anything like that,” he said.

In response to questioning from Dr Dwyer about the comments, Constable Kirstenfeldt said he was referring to “hippy type people”.

“Just that police officers like to talk about work and it’s not very good to be sitting around drinking in town if people are talking about work or mentioning jobs,” he said.

Constable Kirstenfeldt denied he was “referring to people who might be questioning why a young man was shot in community”.

“We tend to get attacked a lot out on the town, by people who have a very anti-police sentiment,” he said.

Constable Kirstenfeldt said he “thought we were all going back to work straight away” and it came as a shock when Constable Rolfe was charged with Mr Walker’s murder.

“The night that he was arrested, my lawyer rang me up and said that Rolfe had just been arrested and that he was trying to organise bail because his lawyer was unavailable at the time,” he said.

Zach Rolfe was acquitted of Kumanjayi Walker’s murder in March. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

“One of his conditions was going to be that we have no contact with him and (he asked) am I able to adhere to that.

“I said ‘Yes, what do I do’ and he said: ‘Most likely expect to be arrested yourself and just wait at home for that to occur’.”

On Tuesday, Constable Kirstenfeldt told the inquest he has “no idea” how a plan to safely arrest the teenager was “abandoned”.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted on all charges over the shooting by a Supreme Court jury in March, with an ongoing Coronial inquiry in the Alice Springs Local Court now in its second month.

The 19-year-old was killed when he was shot three times by Constable Rolfe during a botched arrest in Yuendumu on November 9, 2019.

Under questioning from counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, on Wednesday, James Kirstenfeldt said he had “heard the suggestion” of a plan in which officers would arrest the 19-year-old at 5am the next day.

Constable Kirstenfeldt said he assumed he had heard about the plan from Yuendumu Sergeant in charge Julie Frost after arriving in the community because “I’ve got it in my statement” but could not remember the exchange.

“I’ve tried to think about this over and over, I’ve anticipated this question and it’s just something I don’t know how we’ve gotten from the 5am plan to now we’re doing something else,” he said.

“I just don’t know how that’s occurred.”

“What you’re telling her honour is that sitting there in the witness box today, you’ve thought about it a lot and you just don’t know how that plan morphed from 5am in the morning to ‘Let’s go straight out and grab him’”? Dr Dwyer asked.

“So the whole 5am plan was abandoned by the time that you set out into the community?”

Constable Kirstenfeldt replied: “It appears to have, yes.”

“This is the part that’s a bit foggy I suppose, like I don’t understand how it’s changed from that to we’re all leaving the station,” he said.

Constable James Kirstenfeldt said Zach Rolfe was ‘just checking in on me’ when they caught up for coffee this year. Picture: Jason Walls

“I just don’t know, I don’t have an answer for that but it was obviously everyone that would’ve known about it because we’ve driven straight from there to the (house).”

But the Immediate Response Team member was adamant he had never seen a written operations order detailing the plan prior to the shooting and “didn’t understand anything that (Sergeant Frost) said as a direction or an order”.

Constable Kirstenfeldt said he had not had “a direct one-on-one” with Sergeant Frost so “it stands to reason” that Constable Rolfe was also present.

He said he had seen his former IRT colleague twice since 2019 but had not discussed “how (Constable Rolfe) came to take photos of the written ops order”.

“Did he tell you whether he read that written ops order when he took photos of it?” Dr Dwyer asked.

“No, we caught up for coffee for about 10 minutes,” Constable Kirstenfeldt replied.

“Did you talk about anything that went on, on 9 November?” she asked.

“No, he was just checking in on me,” he replied.

The inquest continues on Friday.