Outback officers ‘need to have guns’, Kumanjayi Walker inquest hears

NT policeman tells inquest it’s mostly women — not men — fighting in the remote community of Yuendumu, attacking each other with trampoline poles and tyre levers.

Remote Sergeant Lanyon Smith outside the Alice Springs Local Court for an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.

An experienced remote-region police sergeant has rejected calls for Northern Territory police to stop carrying guns in Indigenous communities.

Remote Sergeant Lanyon Smith also told an inquiry he had seen an increase in women in the community of Yuendumu using weapons including nulla-nullas, trampoline poles and tyre levers to attack one another.

Sergeant Smith was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Aboriginal man Kumanjayi Walker, who was shot dead at Yuendumu by Constable Zachary Rolfe during a botched arrest ­attempt on November 9, 2019.

Sergeant Smith was one of two officers Walker threatened with an axe when they tried to apprehend him three days before the fatal shooting.

Sergeant Smith and Senior Constable Christopher Hand backed away during that incident and Walker escaped.

Zachary Rolfe. Picture: Glenn Campbell

He told the inquiry he had never drawn his Glock in more than 20 years as a police officer.

But he said he believed police still needed to carry guns.

“Because there are guns within the Yuendumu community. I know community members (who) lawfully own guns,” he said.

“So if a community member has a gun, we need to have guns as well.”

Warlpiri elders called for police to be banned from carrying guns in Indigenous communities after Constable Rolfe was acquitted of Walker’s murder in March.

Counsel for Walker’s family, Andrew Boe, asked Sergeant Smith if there should be an ­inquiry into whether police should be permitted to carry guns in communities.

“So you’re asking for an ­inquiry?” Sergeant Smith replied.

Mr Boe, who is also representing the Lane and Robertson families at the inquest, then suggested there be a “proper examination balancing the needs, risks and dangers” of police carrying guns that considered the wishes of the community.

Sergeant Smith replied that he would continue to wear his ­accoutrement belt, “so long as it’s part of my uniform to perform my duties – and that includes a Glock”.

Pushed on whether there was merit in examining the issue, Sergeant Smith said: “You can examine the question, but even with what I’ve said, I will still carry my Glock.”

Sergeant Smith was asked why he hadn’t drawn his Glock when Walker threatened him with an axe during the arrest attempt on November 6, 2019.

He said in his experience a Warlpiri man brandishing a weapon was often a show of strength, rather than a threat.

“It’s more so (a display) for the men carrying the weapons,” he said. “I’ve rarely gone to male-on-male fights.

“Over the last four years it’s been mainly the female Warlpiri women with the nulla-nullas, trampoline poles, tyre levers – and they have used it on each other.”

Sergeant Smith told the ­inquest he was aware of two incidents where officers at Yuendumu had been seriously injured, including one this year where Sergeant Anne Jolley, the officer-in-charge, had been attacked from behind during a riot.

“I don’t know the extent of the injury to her, but I believe she was hit from behind,” he said.

“It was either a weapon or she was punched. I don’t know.”

He said the other incident – ­involving another female officer – had occurred before Walker was shot dead.

“I believe she was hit with a weapon of some sort,” he said. “I can’t remember who it was, but it was obviously at Yuendumu.”

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage asked Sergeant Smith if carrying a gun acted as a deterrent against crime.

“Yes, it does,” he said. “It’s like wearing a uniform, it deters 90 per cent of it. I’ve heard community say that they don’t want us to have guns, but they still call us and they know we have guns. They’re happy.”

The inquest continues.

Matt Cunningham is the Sky News Northern Australia Correspondent