Kumanjayi Walker ‘kept resisting after third shot’

Kumanjayi Walker continued to resist arrest after Northern Territory police constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times, a court has been told.

The police officer who shot Kumanjayi Walker wearing a bullet proof vest enters the Alice Springs Hospital after an Royal Flying Doctors Plane landed from Yuendumu. Picture: Emma Murray

Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker continued to resist arrest after Northern Territory police constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times, a court has been told.

The troubled youngster from the outback community of Yuendumu was wanted for breaching a court order and for threatening two policemen with an axe three days prior. Constable Rolfe fired once after Walker stabbed him with scissors.

Remote Sergeant Adam Eberl, the only other person in the room at the time, told the NT Supreme Court Constable Rolfe’s initial response mimicked a scenario from police training. “So as the person was to come down with a knife, the training was as you raised up your arm, you drew your firearm from your holster, rotated it up at a 45-degree angle and fired into the subject (to achieve) immediate incapacitation,” he said.

Sergeant Eberl said he grabbed Walker in a “seatbelt hold”, wrestled the 19-year-old to the ground and tried to pin him there by his arm. What Constable Rolfe did next has him facing charges of murder, manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death. He has pleaded not guilty.

According to body-worn video played to the jury, Constable Rolfe reached around Sergeant Eberl’s back, placed his Glock at “point-blank” range on Walker’s chest and fired twice more.

The jury is being asked to pick through a maze of police rules and regu­lations, training manuals and other information to decide whether shooting Walker like that was legally justifiable.

Sergeant Eberl told the court he did not draw his own pistol because he was initially unaware Walker had a weapon, and when he became aware, he still did not draw “because his (Walker’s) right arm was out, and it wasn’t in front of me trying to stab me”.

Police are taught they can produce their firearm in response to a knife, under the training maxim “edged weapon equals gun”, but drawing a gun does not oblige firing it.

Constable Rolfe and Sergeant Eberl deployed to Yuendumu as part of a four-man Immediate Response Team. Sergeant Lee Bauwens, the officer in charge of that unit, testified that at the time of Walker’s shooting in November 2019, the then relatively new tactical IRT had never been used in a real, high-risk operation. He said the IRT’s “primary role is to cordon and contain” under four planned scenarios. He also agreed one lesson from standard police training was “it is only possible to be threatened if you place yourself in a position where you can be threatened”.

The court has heard Constable Rolfe’s and the IRT did not cordon House 511, where they suspected Walker was hiding and did not discuss what to do if they found him or if he turned violent; they were following their “own plan”, not one approved by superiors.

In body-worn footage played to the court, Sergeant Eberl can be heard telling Walker after the third shot to “Stop f..king around, or I’ll smash you”.

“And that’s because he was still, ‘f..king around’, he was not incapacitated?” defence barrister David Edwardson QC asked Sergeant Eberl, who agreed.

Sergeant Eberl confirmed to Mr Edwardson that Walker “certainly was not complying … in any way with your attempts to restrain him” and continued “resisting at all times”.

“And you never actually got control of his right arm, did you?” Mr Edwardson asked. “No, I did not,” Sergeant Eberl replied.

The trial continues.