‘Get on the f***ing ground’: Zach Rolfe pointed gun at man’s head, court hears

Zach Rolfe’s former army colleague has defended his conduct in pointing his Glock at a man’s head and ordering him to ‘get on the f***ing ground’. Watch the latest inquest footage.

Zach Rolfe did not use excessive force when he pointed his Glock at a man’s head and ordered him to “get on the f***ing ground” five months before fatally shooting Kumanjayi Walker, a court has heard.

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

On Monday, his colleague and “close friend” Mark Sykes told Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage he had modelled his own policing on Constable Rolfe after his former Army colleague encouraged him to join the NT Police.

Constable Sykes said Constable Rolfe always spoke respectfully, behaved appropriately and used the minimum force necessary when interacting with the public while on duty.

Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, played body-worn camera footage of Constable Rolfe arresting Alice Springs man, Christopher Walker, in which he bursts into a house with his gun drawn and yells at him to “get on the f***ing ground”.

Dr Dwyer asked Constable Sykes whether he thought it was “an appropriate way for an officer to behave”, and he replied that “in those circumstances, I do”.

“As we were driving to that residence that night, the man that had called the police was still on the phone with police and our radio communications were relaying what he was saying to us,” he said.

“He said that he was barricaded in the bathroom, he had gone in there because the offender, Mr Walker, had a knife and was trying to kill him.

“So right up until the moment when we left that vehicle, police communications was telling us that there was somebody trying to get into that bathroom to kill a man and that he had a knife in his hand.”

Constable Mark Sykes outside the Alice Springs Local Court for an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Jason Walls

Constable Sykes said the threat to the man in the bathroom was “imminent” and it was “very hard to keep a reactionary gap” with a potentially armed offender inside a building.

He said Constable Rolfe’s response was “proportionate to what we were being told” and he had shown “great restraint in being able to both deal with what’s in front of him and manipulate that firearm”.

“The moment that he saw both of that man, the offender, Walker’s hands, that he wasn’t holding that knife, (he) put his firearm to the side and used a strike to put him to the ground,” he said.

“He suspects that the man on the ground was the man that we were looking for, with the knife, but we can’t be sure, we don’t know that we’re (not) going to walk up the corridor and then be ambushed from the left.

“My body-worn would show you that I immediately went to the backyard and cleared the backyard and we realised that we had the man we were looking for in custody.”

Dr Dwyer asked why, once he had seen Mr Walker did not have a weapon, “a strike (was) required to get that man to the ground”.

Constable Sykes responded that “in that moment, there was no way of identifying whether he was the offender, or the victim, or a bystander”.

“He was told to get on the ground, he didn’t follow instructions, now we were still looking in that house for someone that we believed was trying to kill another person armed with a knife,” he said.

“That man needed to be contained as soon as possible.”

Dr Dwyer asked: “That man needed to be struck to the ground, just in case he was the suspect he was looking for, is that your evidence?”

Constable Sykes replied “Yes ma’am”.

“He was put in a position where he was not able to be a threat, now when he was struck I think it was pretty obvious that it was on the chest and he was just pushed towards that bed,” he said.

“That second police officer, as you come in, then immediately contains him and the house is searched.

“At the end of the video, I hear Constable Rolfe say ‘That’s the bad guy, we have him’ and everybody relaxes.”

Constable Sykes said the footage was “an example of Constable Rolfe using the minimum force that was required in the circumstances”

“I’m not saying that’s the only way that could have been dealt with, but at the time, I do appreciate that that’s how it was dealt with and I’m OK with that.”

A still of body-worn camera footage of Zach Rolfe arresting Christopher Walker in Alice Springs in 2019.

Constable Sykes also said in the days after the shooting, Constable Rolfe had relayed that a senior officer had told him he had already been all but cleared by an internal investigation.

“I think it was at the time Commander Brad Currie had told him that he’d already been passed for justification and excuse and that they were just ticking off authorisation,” he said.

“That he’d seen a psych and that he had made an agreement to come back to work, I believe the following Monday and that his parents were flying in.

“He said that everything was going surprisingly, really well for him, and he felt like he was being very well looked after.”

Constable Sykes said he understood that “being cleared on justification or excuse” meant “he had adhered to his training in the circumstances”.

Earlier, the inquest heard Constable Rolfe told a colleague he had a tendency to “get violent” but was “not mad”, “just different than normal folk” in the weeks before he fatally shot Mr Walker.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted on all charges in March after shooting Kumanjayi Walker three times during a botched arrest in Yuendumu, with the death now the subject of an ongoing inquest in the Alice Springs Local Court.

The latest text messages were revealed on Monday as Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage was played sickening footage of Constable Rolfe violently shoving an alleged offender into a brick wall, causing blood to gush from his head.

Two days after that arrest and less than a month before the fatal shooting on November 9, the now former officer, who’s name has been suppressed, messaged Constable Rolfe saying “thanks for the chat this arvo brother, really appreciate it”.

“Yeah, all good brother, always down for a chat about our weird shit ha ha,” Constable Rolfe replied.

The other officer then texted back: “This is going to sound wired bro, but in the nicest way of course, glad someone thinks the way I do, and I’m not going mad.”

Constable Rolfe replied “Nah, I feel exactly the same man, cut from the same cloth”.

“I’ve only talked to you and Sykesy about my head, but even he doesn’t get violent like us, but you’re not mad, we’re just different than normal folk,” he wrote.

In his evidence to the inquest on Monday, the third officer referred to in the exchange, Constable Mark Sykes, told the court he did not know what was being discussed between the former cop and his “close friend”.

“There’s been times when we’ve had those open and honest discussions with each other, we’ve been friends for a long time and are often sounding boards for each other,” he said.

Constable Mark Sykes outside court. Picture: Jason Walls

But Constable Sykes said Constable Rolfe, who he had known since the pair served together in the Australian Army in Afghanistan, had never told him “that he gets violent and loses his temper sometimes”.

“We’ve talked about when we’re happy, or when we’re having a bad day or a good day or something’s frustrating (us),” he said.

“Yes, we’ve talked about those types of things, (but) he’s never said to me that he has something in his head and he gets violent, no we’ve never had that conversation.”

When asked by counsel assisting the Coroner, Peggy Dwyer, if he had “any concerns in relation to the use of force” in the arrest of Albert Bailey shown in the footage, Constable Sykes replied “No, ma’am”.

The inquest continues on Monday.