Zachary Rolfe killing: cops in fear of payback

Police waited until the morning after an officer had shot dead an Indigenous man to inform his family due to fears of payback, an inquest has heard.

Sergeant Chris Hand leaves the Alice Springs Local Court after giving evidence at an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Jason Walls

Police waited until the morning after an officer had shot dead an Indigenous man to inform his family because of fears over payback, an inquest has heard.

Constable Zachary Rolfe shot Kumanjayi Walker three times during a botched arrest attempt at Yuendumu just after 7pm on Nov­ember 9, 2019.

He was taken to the Yuendumu Police Station where officers performed first aid, but he died at 8:36pm. His family was not notified until the next morning.

Sergeant Christopher Hand, who was working at Yuendumu Police Station on the night of the shooting, told the inquest into Walker’s death that police did not inform the family he had died because they were worried about payback. “The concern was that members of the community would seek cultural payback on the police,” he said.

“Not saying all of the community had that mindset, but we need to be mindful that that is part of their culture, traditional payback, and if there’s a mixture of anger and tension and some alcohol … has been consumed then sometimes that does get out of hand.”

Sergeant Hand said he was aware of instances where disturbances had started over a Facebook post. “This wasn’t a Facebook post, it was an Indigenous man being shot by police,” he said.

He said at 9.05pm he received a call from Eddie Robertson – the grandfather of Walker’s girlfriend, Rakeisha Robertson – who was in an agitated state asking whether Walker was still alive.

He knew Walker was dead but told Mr Robertson he was still receiving medical treatment.

“That is a critical decision and could have had implications for how the remainder of the night went,” he said in response to a question about why he hadn’t told the truth. “Bearing in mind we only had limited resources in the station, there was concern that once the community knew he had died, then our safety was at risk.”

At 12.07am, Mr Robertson had a phone conversation with Sergeant Terry Zhang, the forward commander flown in from Alice Springs to manage the critical incident. He told him Walker was still receiving medical treatment, to which Mr Robertson replied “Thank you”. Walker had died more than three hours earlier.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Patrick Coleridge, read part of a report filed last week by the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. Titled In Normal Circumstances: Understanding the structural nature of racial violence in the Northern Territory, it was prepared by Indigenous academics Chelsea Watego, Amanda Porter, David Singh and others.

“Overall, we find that the death of Kumanjayi Walker was the ­result of brutal, structural, racial violence, perpetrated by the Northern Territory government through its police and health departments,” Mr Coleridge quoted. “One way in which that systemic racism manifested, on the 9th of November was in an over-exaggeration by the NT police of the level of threat posed to those officers by the community following the shooting.” Sergeant Hand disagreed with this assessment.

The inquest also heard from Constable Felix Alefaio, who was in the muster room at Yuendumu Police Station when Constable Rolfe and members of his Immediate Response Team were briefed by the officer-in-charge, Sergeant Julie Frost, on the night of the shooting.

He said Sergeant Frost had told the IRT officers to provide high-visibility policing that night before meeting back at the station at 5am on November 10.

He said the plan was for him to then help the IRT arrest Walker at 5.30am as he knew Walker and could help identify him.

In March, a jury found Constable Rolfe not guilty of Walker’s murder. The inquest in Alice Springs before Coroner Elisabeth Armitage continues.

Matt Cunningham is Sky News northern Australia correspondent