Cops face racism claim over deadly shooting

Zach Rolfe and NT Police named in Australian Human Rights Council complaint alleging racial discrimination.

Kumanjayi Walker.

Constable Zachary Rolfe and the Northern Territory Police Force have been named as respondents in an Australian Human Rights Council complaint lodged on ­behalf of Kumanjayi Walker’s family and the outback community of Yuendumu.

The complaint is understood to allege that the police were guilty of racial discrimination through their actions in the lead-up to, and following, Walker’s death in November 2019.

Constable Rolfe shot Walker three times after he stabbed him with scissors during an attempted arrest. Constable Rolfe was charged with murder and is due to face trial next week.

It is understood the complaint alleges that the police did not ­respect sorry business after ­Walker’s death and exacerbated feelings of fear, anxiety and distress in the community.

Lawyers have been working with Walker’s extended family and the wider Central Australian Aboriginal community, examining ways to launch a class action on behalf of them and other Yuendumu residents.

Locals have been buoyed by reports of the Queensland government’s $30m class action settlement with residents of Palm Island, made in a suit related to the 2004 death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee.

The NT government recently reached a $35m draft settlement with former Don Dale Youth ­Detention Centre ­inmates.

Streeton Lawyers, a firm representing Walker’s foster family, is understood to have filed the AHRC complaint.

The firm ­declined to discuss its work. Yuendumu locals say the work is tied to a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $380,000.

Streeton is also understood to have notified the NT government of a civil claim to be made under fatal injuries laws on behalf of several of Walker’s relatives. That claim is expected to allege the police acted negligently in causing Walker’s death. It will seek damages, including for nervous shock.

In January 2020, a writ was filed in Alice Springs on behalf of Leanne Oldfield, Walker’s foster mother, but describing her as his “biological mother”.

The document alleged police “negligently and recklessly ­applied lethal, ­unreasonable, ­excessive, unnecessary and ­disproportionate force against” him.

That suit was dismissed in April 2020 for reasons that ­remain unclear.

An NT government spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment on matters before the courts. Police, the AHRC and Rolfe’s lawyers, also declined to comment.