Police ‘in a world of hurt’ after fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu last year

POLICE at Yuendumu ‘knew we were in a world of hurt’ and feared mass rioting after the shooting death of teenager Kumanjayi Walker last year, a court has heard

Relatives of teenager Kumanjayi Walker gather outside the Alice Springs Local Court on Tuesday. Picture: Jason Walls

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POLICE at Yuendumu “knew we were in a world of hurt” and feared mass rioting after the shooting death of teenager Kumanjayi Walker last year, a court has heard.

Constable Zach Rolfe is facing a four-day committal hearing in the Alice Springs Local Court where he is charged with murdering the 19-year-old while on duty in November.

On Tuesday, officer in charge at Yuendumu at the time, Sergeant Julie Frost, told the court she had seen riots break out in the town over as little as a Facebook post.

“I knew that where this was going to head after someone had been shot by police — I could only foresee that it was going to be horrendous," she said.

Sgt Frost said previous riots had involved up to 200 people, usually including a “core group of women”.

Constable Zach Rolfe is facing a four-day committal hearing in the Alice Springs Local Court

“Once I heard that there had been a shooting, I knew we were in a world of hurt,” she said.

“I expressed that by saying, ‘I have seen riots, historically, following the issuing of a Facebook post, so after something like a police shooting, I knew that this was going to turn pretty bad.”

Sgt Frost said despite an earlier incident in which Mr Walker had confronted police armed with an axe, the original plan had been to arrest him early on the morning after he was ultimately fatally shot.

Sgt Frost said mornings were generally a safer time to make an arrest and the delay would allow him to attend the funeral of a family member as a bargaining chip in the hope he’d turn himself in.

“There’s a lot less people affected by alcohol and drugs and there’s no interference from neighbours or anything like that, everyone’s asleep,” she said.

“I knew there was a memorial concert on that (previous) night and I was happy that he was going to attend that, I was still holding out that little hope that he would present himself at the end of it.”

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Sgt Frost said while Mr Walker hadn’t been considered a danger to the community, under cross examination by defence lawyer, David Edwardson QC, she agreed that after the axe incident there was a “real possibility” of a further confrontation with police.

Sgt Frost agreed with Mr Edwardson that the axe incident was “extremely alarming” and “either one of those officers could have been killed or seriously injured”.

Rolfe has denied any wrongdoing and the hearing resumes on Wednesday.

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