‘Not part of the plan’: NT cop on Aboriginal teenagers’ early arrest and subsequent death

NT policeman says he hasn’t slept for six months grappling with how a simple arrest led to the death of a young Aboriginal man.

Constable Zachary Rolfe outside court in March. Picture: Amanda Parkinson

Constable Zachary Rolfe set out on the evening of November 9, 2019 to arrest Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker, ignoring a plan to wait until 5am the following day.

Superintendent Jody Nobbs told a coronial inquest into the death of Walker, who was fatally shot by Rolfe, he expected members of the Immediate Response Team who were deployed to Yuendumu in the Northern Territory to follow the plan and wait until after a funeral to apprehend him on Sunday.

“Our intention is to do a certain thing within a narrow set of parameters (arrest Walker) and then all I know is that we have the death of a community member and I then spent many, many sleepless nights trying to reconcile in my mind how we got to where we got to,” he said.

Footage from Rolfe’s body-worn camera was played to the court which recorded him and two colleagues searching a property.

Rolfe can be heard asking a man who presides at the house: “My name is Zach, nice to meet you man. We’re here to grab up Arnold (Kumanjayi Walker) hey.”

“Is he inside? Do you mind if I check inside?”

NT Police Superintendent Jody Nobbs outside Alice Springs Local Court. Picture: Jason Walls

After he consulted with Officer in Charge of Yuendumu station Julie Frost, Mr Nobbs agreed to send in four members of the Immediate Response Team to arrest Walker.

Mr Nobbs contacted Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst in the days leading up to the arrest on November 9.

He alerted him the IRT would be deployed as general duties officers to Yuendumu to provide relief to local police after a sleepless night spent dealing with attempted and successful property break ins and concern that health staff were about to flee the community.

They would also help to arrest Walker, but Mr Nobbs said the officers went outside the “scope” of the plan on the night Walker was killed.

“It’s a difficult one for me. This event has had an impact on everyone involved,” he said.

“It certainly has on me as well in terms of one of the critical aspects of any tactical matter or any critical incident is a post operation debrief. I was never afforded that opportunity in regards to this.

“It’s one of the things I’m learning over the last few days (that) have been sort of been informative to me. I spent probably six months not sleeping going, how can something so simple in my mind become what it ultimately became.”

Rolfe was found not guilty by a jury of murdering Walker in March this year.