Booze up after fatal shooting was a ‘welfare check’ after no psychologist available, court hears

Senior Constable Shane McCormack said he was thinking of Zach Rolfe’s parents when he organised a gathering with other police officers following the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.

A sergeant who organised a boozy catch up with Zach Rolfe and other officers after he fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker has told the Coroner he felt compelled to do so as “there were no other welfare supports being offered” by NT Police.

On Friday, Senior Constable Shane McCormack gave evidence at an inquest into Mr Walker’s death in Yuendumu on November 9, 2019, following which Constable Rolfe was acquitted on all charges by a Supreme Court jury.

The then acting sergeant told the inquest he had been “critical” of two police officers who did not draw their Glocks when Mr Walker ran at them with an axe three days before the shooting, in text messages to Constable Rolfe on November 7.

“You imagine if that other cop got killed and he stood there and watched it with his f***in’ hands up? What the f*** have we become?” he wrote.

Constable Rolfe replied: “I know, aye. F*** my whole life.”

Constable McCormack told the court he thought the officers had “left it to chance” but it was a “heat of the moment text message”.

“Is it possible that you and Constable Rolfe thought you knew better than the community police and you thought you would get in and out and show these community police how it was done?” counsel assisting Patrick Coleridge asked.

But Constable McCormack denied that was possible “because I have worked in communities for a long time and it’s, it’s a tough job working bush”.

Then on November 10, Constable McCormack sent another text to Constable Rolfe asking “is anyone free for an IRT debrief” at the office.

“I’ll bring the beers and let Adam and Jimmy know,” he wrote.

Constable McCormack said Zach Rolfe’s welfare was ‘too serious a matter to kind of leave it up to someone else’. Picture: Jason Walls

Constable McCormack said he did not know how the plan evolved to become a gathering at Constable Rolfe’s home but that he felt compelled to attend as “I don’t think anything (else) was being provided”.

“I think I was more mindful that Zach lived alone,” he said.

“Obviously, what happened, it would have been very traumatic for everyone, I think it was just really just to make sure – see how he’s travelling.

“I hadn’t met Zach’s parents until obviously after that, and they are lovely people, and you could just think, I don’t know how they must have felt, like to know that their son would have went through this tragic incident.

“And that if he hadn’t been getting support, I don’t know how they would have felt at the time, because they live all the way in Canberra, so yeah, I think we could definitely do better on it.”

Constable McCormack agreed there was a “tension in situations like this” because of the importance of keeping the officers present at the shooting separated so as not to contaminate each others’ evidence.

“But on the other hand, as a senior officer and as a human being, you have a moral obligation to young men like Zach Rolfe, to ensure that they are okay?” Mr Coleridge asked.

“Because obviously there is a relationship between the trauma that all of the IRT members must have experienced on 9 November and their accounts of what happened?”

Constable McCormack replied: “I understand how this looks, your honour, I do, and I apologise, it was definitely not my intention.”

“I seen it as too serious a matter to kind of leave it up to someone else,” he said.

“I knew that if I went around I could make sure, for my peace of mind, how he was doing.”

Constable McCormack said there was no police psychologist available in the Alice Springs region at the time and now “they fly down and visit from Darwin”.

Senior Constable Shane McCormack outside court. Picture: Jason Walls

Earlier, the court heard Constable Rolfe had asked another officer to turn his body-worn camera off on the night he fatally shot Mr Walker Walker, leaving a gap of almost 15 minutes unrecorded

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

On Thursday, dog handler Adam Donaldson, who was present on the night, was played an excerpt of his body-worn camera footage in which Constable Rolfe asks “Is anyone on?”.

Sergeant Donaldson replies “I’m turning mine off”, before the footage stops.

Under questioning from barrister for three local families, Claire O’Neill, Sergeant Donaldson agreed it appeared Constable Rolfe was “checking to see what he was about to say or do, was going to be recorded”.

“Wouldn’t the fact that he asked you to turn it off, make it more important to leave it on?” Ms O’Neill asked.

“At that stage, and I’m not sure what stage of the night that was, I couldn’t tell, but that looked (like) we were no longer doing anything, and we were just standing, we were together in the main room,” Sergeant Donaldson said.

But Ms O’Neill suggested Sergeant Donaldson did not turn the camera off “because nothing was happening” but because Constable Rolfe had asked him to, and he agreed.

Police gather inside the Yuendumu police station on November 9, 2019. Picture: Courts NT

“And so in a critical incident like that, where Constable Rolfe shot the man who just passed away, wouldn’t the fact that he asked you to turn it off, make it more important to leave it on?” she asked.

“From what I remember, we were coming together in the middle, and I think the whole point of that was to see if everyone was okay,” Sergeant Donaldson replied.

“And I probably concede that that would not (be) what it looks like, but for me, a lot of things had just happened.

“I think that was the first, I’ll call it ‘lull’, in what had happened all that night, where we could just take a breath, and that’s what I remember happening.”

Sergeant Donaldson agreed stopping the recording meant there was a 14 minute gap in the footage where there was no record of what was said.

But when asked by counsel assisting the Coroner, Patrick Coleridge, what was discussed, Sergeant Donaldson said the officers were discussing “how they were feeling” and “if everyone was okay, if anyone was injured”.

Zach Rolfe is captured on Adam Donaldson’s body-worn camera. Picture: Courts NT

And he agreed that “how they were feeling would be directly related to what they saw and did”, “so there’d be some discussion of what had happened”.

“And that’s the context in which Constable Rolfe asked you to turn off your body-worn footage?” Mr Coleridge asked.

Sergeant Donaldson replied: “Yes.”

The inquest continues on Monday.