NT Police commissioner says he is sorry after a Yuendumu nurse’s ambulance was targeted

A youth worker urged Kumanjayi Walker to use a false name when hurt during a break-in and the NT Police Commissioner has apologised to a nurse as she gave evidence in the inquest.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has apologised to a nurse who says she feared for her life as her ambulance was pelted with rocks after officers used it as a “decoy” to trick the Yuendumu community on the night Kumanjayi Walker died.

Lorraine Walcott took the stand in the Alice Springs Local Court on Wednesday to give evidence in an ongoing Coronial inquest into Mr Walker’s police shooting death in 2019.

Constable Zach Rolfe was acquitted of his murder by a Supreme Court jury in March.

Ms Walcott said she was stationed in Yuelamu when she received a phone call from Yuendumu Sergeant Julie Frost at about 7.30pm on November 9, telling her there had been a shooting.

She said she and her colleague, Heather Zanker, immediately headed to the other remote Aboriginal community, for which they were now also responsible after the local nurses there were evacuated earlier that day.

The pair then drove to Yuendumu, arriving at the police station where unbeknown to them, Mr Walker now lay dead, shortly after 9pm, and a “quite calm” crowd of locals was gathered “waiting for some news”.

An injury Lorraine Walcott suffered after being struck by a rock. Picture: Courts NT

Soon after, the nurses realised Mr Walker had already died and Ms Walcott turned her attention to Constable Rolfe, treating a small puncture wound on his shoulder which did not require stitches.

“We weren’t doing much, just sitting at a table, Heather and I, and Julie commented about asking us if we could do something about going to the airstrip in a convoy with a police vehicle in front and one behind,” she said.

“And she twice said ‘Your safety is paramount to us’, but that we would be protected with these police vehicles.”

Ms Walcott said Sergeant Frost did not tell her why she wanted the ambulance to accompany police to the airstrip.

“All I remember is hearing we’re going in a convoy, possibly I heard the words ‘as a decoy’, but I don’t know what they meant,” she said.

“We didn’t know why, we speculated ourselves that it was possibly to retrieve some medical personnel.”

But once the group arrived, Ms Walcott said it became clear they were not there to pick up any more health workers.

“We saw some bodies, policemen, getting out of the convoy with an (Royal Flying Doctor Service) plane and jumping into the waiting police vehicle,” she said.

“We saw them starting to drive off and we went: ‘We’d better follow, they’re leaving without us’, but this time, we weren’t in between the two vehicles, so we were playing a bit of catch up then, as they left the airstrip.

The damaged ambulance. Picture: Courts NT

“We were on the road and I just seem to remember a bit of a speed hump and thinking, I can’t keep up with the police, but I wanted to keep up with them, because they were meant to be – we were meant to be in between their cars.”

It was then Ms Walcott said a “rock smashed through the driver’s side window”.

“The smashed, shattered glass hit me on the head and the shoulder, but at that time, I didn’t realise what it was, it just seemed like some sort of explosion,” she said.

“Then I felt blood dripping down and was trying to veer off the road to avoid running over someone, because I was in shock, injured and didn’t know what was happening.”

A few minutes later, the nurses caught up with the police, who were by now already back at the station and Ms Zanker applied first aid.

“I was trying to wind the window up in my shocked state, which wasn’t there, and she called out to the police that were entering the police station that we’ve got an injury here,” she said.

“She assisted me in and we found some more first aid supplies, and I had lots of big lumps on my head, so I sat for quite a while with ice on those, and with Heather basically nursing me.”

NT Police barrister, Amanda Burnnard, said while she had no questions for the nurse “I do have something to say, and it is this”.

“The Commissioner apologises to you for your having been placed in a position in which you were injured by rocks having been thrown at your vehicle by members of the Yuendumu community that evening,” she said.

Ms Walcott replied: “Thank you very much, I appreciate that.”

Counsel for NT Health, Tom Hutton, asked Ms Walcott if she was frightened and feared for her life at times on the night, and the nurse agreed.

Ms Walcott told NT Health barrister Tom Hutton she feared for her life. Picture: Jason Walls

“We were frightened,” she said.

“I remember thinking that I didn’t feel safe even with the police around.”

On Tuesday, the court heard a youth worker “encouraged” Kumanjayi Walker to use a false name during treatment for injuries sustained in a break-in in the months leading up to his death.

Former Yuendumu nurse, Cassandra Holland, told Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage she had met Mr Walker once before a series of burglaries at the nurses’ quarters he had initially been suspected of being involved in, in the lead-up to the shooting.

“He was brought into the clinic one night when I was on call, he came in with a different name, he came in with a (Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation) worker, who encouraged him to use a different name,” she said

“He was pretty cut up, he had broken into the WYDAC rooms and he had been ransacking the rooms looking for food, and they managed to calm him down and feed him.

“He was then brought to the clinic for care and it was later that I realised that I actually had Kumanjayi in that room.”

Constable Zach Rolfe was acquitted on all charges relating to the shooting by a Supreme Court jury in March.

During the trial, footage from Constable Rolfe’s body-worn camera played to the court showed Mr Walker giving the officer the false name of Vernon Dixon moments before the shooting.

Constable Rolfe then compared the teenager to a photo on his mobile phone and identified him as Mr Walker before initiating the failed arrest attempt.

Ms Holland told the inquest she did not know the youth worker’s name, but the same woman later approached her as she prepared to leave the community on the afternoon Mr Walker was killed.

“The volume went up, there was a lot of screaming about how the nurses were being disrespectful – we weren’t the ones screaming at the funeral,” she said.

“I didn’t think she had the right to say what she said, it wasn’t coming from the family, it wasn’t coming from the respectable people that were at the funeral, it was a very solemn occasion.”

Under questioning by Constable Rolfe’s barrister, Luke Officer, Ms Holland said on the night Mr Walker came in for treatment he was “very jumpy”.

“He didn’t sit still, he was leaning into my personal space, he was very close to me at particular times, he didn’t sit on the chair, he was very, very close to me the whole time and I felt that my personal space was violated,” she said.

Zach Rolfe's barrister Luke Officer questioned Ms Holland about her police statement on Tuesday. Picture: Jason Walls

Ms Holland said Mr Walker never actually gave her his name himself and no one else had ever used a false name when receiving treatment to her knowledge.

“He was introduced to me by the WYDAC worker and she didn’t give an explanation as to his injuries until during the consult, and she was protecting him,” she said.

“He’d broken into the WYDAC area where there were food supplies and he was going through looking for food, he was very hungry, and he was very driven for food and he wanted food and she stood in his way.

“She wasn’t injured but he was injured and basically she said he had got the food he needed but now he needed to have care of his wounds.”

Mr Officer read from a statement Ms Holland had given police in 2020 in which she said she could see “a level of fear and frustration” in Yuendumu sergeant Julie Frost regarding Mr Walker.

“She told me how scared she was of him,” she said in the statement.

“He was a very scary man and I recognised him as someone in the crowd that I wouldn’t want to tangle with.”

But when questioned about the statement, Ms Holland said it was “an inappropriate thing to say, particularly in hindsight”.

“At the time of my meeting Kumanjayi Walker I was very on guard, you know, and I did fear, I did have concerns for my safety being in the same room,” she said.

“I don’t know whether (Sergeant Frost) particularly said she was scared of him but she was frustrated about the fact her community, her community that she looked after, was in disarray because of one individual.”

The inquest continues.