Kumanjayi Walker inquest: Cops to be grilled on ‘systemic racism’

A coronial inquest into the shooting death of Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker will look for ‘evidence of systemic racism’ in the Northern Territory Police Force.

Kumanjayi Walker.

A coronial inquest into the shooting of Aboriginal teenager ­Kumanjayi Walker will look for “evidence of systemic racism” in the Northern Territory Police Force and ask whether Constable ­Zachary Rolfe might have been suffering from a health condition or using drugs at the time of the fatal incident.

The inquest will also examine whether there has been a “militarisation” of policing in the NT, including if it was appropriate for Constable Rolfe’s unit to bring “military-style weapons” when it set out to arrest Walker for escaping from a rehabilitation facility and threatening two police officers with an axe.

It will ask whether Constable Rolfe provided “accurate and honest ­information” when applying to become a police officer, having served previously in the army, and whether he or any of his police Immediate Response Team colleagues have been ­involved in disciplinary or ­remedial action.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted earlier this year of murdering Walker during a botched attempted arrest in the troubled outback community of Yuendumu in 2019. Walker, who had a history of violence against police and his partner, stabbed Constable Rolfe with scissors, and the latter shot him three times during a struggle.

The jury’s verdict outraged some Aboriginal elders, who claimed the justice system was biased; they demanded a ban on police officers carrying guns in the bush.

Evidence emerged after the trial that Constable Rolfe had been involved in several other ­incidents of alleged excessive use of force against Aboriginal suspects and had privately described Alice Springs as a “shithole” where police did “cowboy stuff with no rules”.

In one of the alleged incidents, Constable Rolfe “deliberately ­assaulted” a young Aboriginal male, then “fabricated an injury to cover up” the excessive use of force and “lied in evidence” about what he had done, a magistrate concluded.

Constable Rolfe acknowledged in an interview with The Australian he had been the subject of “a number of complaints” about his use of force. “Every one of those has been investigated, and I’ve been cleared,” he said. “That force was never excessive – it was relative to the situation.”

The inquest, due to begin in September and last several weeks, has amassed more than 12,000 items of evidence and will hear from dozens of witnesses.

A draft issues list indicated the inquest would ask whether Alice Springs-based police officers “discriminated against Indigenous Australians” and whether there was evidence the “fairness or ­efficiency of the coronial invest­igation by NT Police was ­compromised”.

The inquiry will look at ­Walker’s life and the circumstances of his death. It will also examine whether he had any disabilities such as mental health or foetal alcohol spectrum disorders, hearing loss or learning defects.

Acting Coroner Elisabeth ­Armitage said Constable Rolfe would feature prominently in her inquiry “because he is integral to these events”. She said that would be “as an example or exemplar of what might be broader issues within the police force”.

Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, stressed the inquest would not be “a roving royal commission” into Constable Rolfe’s conduct. “If mistakes were made leading up to Kumanjayi’s death, the aim of this inquest is not to blame one individual,” she said.

“We must acknowledge the mistakes, learn the lessons from them and prevent those deaths from occurring in the future.”

Constable Rolfe’s lawyer, Luke Officer, said his client was “alive to the positives that can come from this inquest” and knew it was ­“important there is an ­attempt to rebuild relationships” between communities and police.