Policeman Zach Rolfe’s promising career faces harrowing future

He served with distinction in the army before joining the police. A dream has become a nightmare.

Northern Territory constable Zach Rolfe arrives at Canberra Airport on Thursday after being released on bail. Picture: Kym Smith

If a young man had the world at his feet, it was Zach Rolfe: the scion of a prominent Canberra family, he had served with distinction in the army and followed his dream to join the police in the Northern Territory.

In April, the then governor-­general, Peter Cosgrove, pinned a medal for bravery on his chest.

Constable Rolfe’s promising future is now on hold, hostage to the legal process set in train when he was charged with the murder of another young man, Kumanjayi Walker, whose path couldn’t have been more different.

READ MORE: Race rupture over Territory murder charge | ‘Remember the oath’: tragedy divides community | Decorated police officer in Yuendumu shooting | NT police commissioner’s pledge on teen’s death | Constable to plead not guilty

Constable Rolfe, 28, is alleged to have killed the 19-year-old Aborigine during a confrontation in the remote indigenous community of Yuendumu, five hours’ drive through the red dust from Alice Springs. The NT Police Association said on Thursday he would plead not guilty and “vigorously contest” the charge.

This was laid against Constable Rolfe after the police major crime squad presented a preliminary ­report to the Director of Public Prosecutions and, in consultation, determined the criminal case should proceed.

19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, who was allegedly shot by 28-year-old constable Zachary Rolfe on Saturday. Picture: Facebook

A charge of murder in the Territory requires DPP approval.

Senior police have said Walker lunged with an edged weapon at either Constable Rolfe or his uniformed partner when they turned up at the home of one of his relatives on Saturday to arrest him, ­inflicting a shoulder injury on Constable Rolfe.

Three gunshots rang out.

However, witnesses in Yuendumu insist the indigenous man did nothing to instigate the deadly exchange, inflaming passions that continued to simmer with the news of Constable Rolfe’s arrest and an out-of-session court ­appearance late on Wednesday where he was granted bail.

Protesters have taken to the streets in Alice Springs, Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne demanding justice for Walker, whose death is the latest in a series of flashpoints between indigenous communities and police in the NT.

Appealing for calm, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said: “What I ask for, right here, right now, is that everyone remains respectful to each other. We cannot let, and will not let, this divide us.”

Constable Zach Rolfe receives his bravery award in April from then governor-general Peter Cosgrove.

The policeman flew to Canberra to be reunited with his parents, Richard and Debbie Rolfe, well known in the capital for their business achievements and philanthropic work.

Mr Rolfe is the wealthy owner of the city’s Audi dealership; a fixture on the board of the Heart Foundation, he has served as the organisation’s patron and in 2009 was recognised with the Order of Australia Medal. As a member of the Australia Day Council, he sits on the selection panel for Australian of the Year.

Ms Rolfe, the managing partner of law firm Maliganis Edwards Johnson, chairs the Canberra Hospital Foundation and is ­involved with her husband in club work for NRL grand finalists the Canberra Raiders. Both received the Order of Australia in 2017.   A spokesman said the couple would not comment on their son’s situation, and asked for the family’s privacy to be respected.

Constable Rolfe, one of three brothers, attended his father’s alma mater, Canberra Grammar, where he was said to be a star ­student. He trained as an army ­officer and deployed to Afghanistan, completing a tour of duty in the war zone. In 2016, he joined the Northern Territory police.

Just a week out of the police academy, the probationary constable helped save the lives of two Asian tourists who were washed off a causeway in the flooded Hugh River west of Alice Springs on December 27, 2016. He and colleague Kristina ­Jamieson went into the torrent to reach one of the terrified holiday-makers, a Taiwanese man who had been washed on to a small sandbank. He was roped to safety.

With the rescued man’s female companion from Hong Kong ­nowhere to be seen, Constable Rolfe waded 5km downstream calling her name. He found her on the opposite side of the raging river and swam it.

She then clung to his back on the return crossing — a feat that earned him the 2018 Clarke Gold Medal for bravery from The Royal Humane Society of Australasia.

It would have been one of the proudest moments of his life as he stood in Government House on April 4 to receive the award from Sir Peter, his parents, brothers and three grandparents looking on.

Separately, Hong Kong bes­towed on him its Bronze Medal for Bravery, the first time a foreigner had been recognised for an act of valour performed outside the ­Chinese territory.

Beijing’s man in Canberra, ambassador Cheng Jingye, forwarded a note of congratulation: “The merits of saving one person’s life excels building a seven-storey ­pagoda.”

Constable Rolfe’s fate rests not only with the courts, but also a raft of investigations into the shooting by the NT Coroner, the government Ombudsman, the Office of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption and a police professional standards tribunal.

The move to charge him with murder, carrying a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of up to 25 years for aggravated murder, came days after the swearing in of new police commissioner, the Territory born-and-bred career cop Jamie Chalker, who takes over at a volatile time for the 1300-strong force.

His predecessor, Australian Federal Police product Reece Kershaw, is said by some to have put noses out of joint by bringing in a Canberra-style procedural ­approach before returning to the AFP in the top job.

Before that, Territory police had been rocked by the resignation in disgrace of commissioner John McRoberts, who was jailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

This stemmed from a police ­investigation into the rorting of a pensioner concession scheme by travel agents, including one with whom McRoberts was in a relationship. The woman, Alexandra Kamitsis, was also the Crime Stoppers Territory boss at the time.

On Thursday, Mr Chalker ­appealed to the police rank and file to “remember the oath” they had taken and maintain integrity and fairness.

“My police force’s strength is only as strong as my weakest link,” he said. “I need all my officers to step to the fore, to trust one another, to trust in the process, to ­remember the oath that they took and the importance of integrity, ethics and fairness.”

Acknowledging that police were “hurting” as accusations of racism flew after Walker’s death, he pledged that the full story of what had happened in Yuendumu would come out.

“Those questions will be ­answered in the fullness of time, without emotion, with objectivity and now, it appears, through the processes of the court,” he said.