I’d a lot on my mind, NT cop tells Kumanjayi Walker inquest

The Southern Watch Commander on duty the day police fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker ‘had a lot on my mind’ when the IRT deployment to arrest the Indigenous teen was being arranged.

Superintendent Jody Nobbs arrives at the Alice Springs Local Court for the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Jason Walls

The Southern Watch Commander on duty the day police fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker “had a lot on my mind” when the Immediate Response Team deployment to arrest the Indigenous teenager was being arranged.

Senior Sergeant Shaun Furniss told day 16 of the coronial inquest into Walker’s death that he had played a “limited role” in the decision-making on the IRT deployment to Yuendumu.

He said he had received a call from Superintendent Jody Nobbs about 1.30pm on November 9, 2019, asking what impact an IRT deployment to Yuendumu would have on the station “administratively” in relation to rostering “as opposed to an operational sort of area”.

“It was more the ‘How would we go getting people in?’ And that was … basically the question that I answered or assisted with.”

Sergeant Furniss told the court he understood the request was for the IRT to “assist them with policing out there and to assist in the arrest of Kumanjayi”.

The 19-year-old was wanted for assaulting police, criminal damage to a police vehicle, criminal damage of his electronic monitoring device and breach of suspended sentence.

Sergeant Furniss then asked Acting Sergeant Shane McCormack, who was in charge of the IRT that weekend, to arrange the deployment.

The former watch commander on Wednesday said his only “boundary” was that members about to come on duty at 3pm not be recruited for the deployment because that would create rostering issues in Alice Springs that evening.

Sergeant Furniss, who had been in the role since 2017, was asked whether he was responsible for the IRT’s actions the night Walker was killed.

“If it was a planned operation, generally the watch commander wouldn’t be overly involved in it, apart from the operational oversight,” he said. “If they were deployed, they generally have their own structure that they operate under. Generally at that stage, you’d be sort of handing it over to the division.”

He said Superintendent Nobbs was “in an overall sense” responsible for the IRT’s deployment. “They come under their own structure, under the officer in charge of the police station,” he said.

“The deployment of the IRT was authorised obviously by the superintendent and the plans, but the IRT had a sergeant there.

“I went to him to organise staff and that was sort of where we left it. He was in charge of that team, as far as I would be aware.”

The court heard a tourist bus had collided with a car and rolled over about 140km from Alice Springs that afternoon while the IRT deployment was being ­arranged. “I’m a finite resource as well and … a critical incident was happening at the time which certainly maintained my focus for the rest of my shift,” Sergeant Furniss said.

“That was where my attention was and priorities were then drawn, whilst … the situation was still going ahead in regard to the (IRT) callout. That afternoon there was a lot of things on my mind and a lot of things that I was doing.”

Sergeant Furniss revealed that resources in the region were stretched and the Alice Springs station consisted of mostly junior members in November 2019 when the critical incident occurred.

The inquest will hear legal ­arguments on Thursday before adjourning until October 10.