Yuendumu: Back-up cops ‘not armed response’

The senior NT policeman who sent Zachary Rolfe’s team to Yuendumu did not intend for them to be deployed as an armed tactical response unit, a court has been told | WATCH VIDEOS

NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst arrives at the court in Darwin on Thursday. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

The senior Northern Territory policeman who sent Zachary Rolfe’s Immediate Response Team to Yuendumu did not ­intend for them to be deployed as an armed tactical response unit in a high-risk operation, a court has been told.

Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst authorised IRT members to be called up because they were “known to readily respond to calls for extra duty assistance, and this would be the most ­timely and effective approach to deploying additional resources”.

The IRT consisted of regular frontline police with some extra training. Their task in Yuendumu was to provide “general support” and “timely respite” to overworked Yuendumu-based officers, he said.

Commissioner Wurst told the NT Supreme Court it was anticipated the family of Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker — whom Constable Rolfe later shot dead — would “hand him ­(Walker) into police after the (his grandfather’s) funeral”.

Walker was wanted for threatening two policemen with an axe and breaching a court order. Constable Rolfe is facing charges of murder, manslaughter and causing death.

The court on Thursday ­released shocking body-worn video footage of the incident. In it Walker stabs Rolfe with scissors during an attempted arrest. Walker is grabbed by another policeman and Rolfe shoots him once. Walker is then taken to the floor, where Rolfe shoots him twice more at close range.

Prosecutors accept that the first shot may have been self-­defence but say shots two and three, fired while Walker was “pinned” down, amount to murder. Defence lawyers say Walker was extremely dangerous, on ­account of the axe incident.

Walker’s aunt Louanna Williams testified that he told her he “never meant to hurt anybody (with the axe); he just wanted to make a way through the house (to escape)”.

“He wanted to be arrested after the funeral … because he knew he was in trouble,” she said.

One of the last people to see Walker alive was his adopted mother, Leanne Oldfield, who told the court he joked with her about a family photograph ­before walking inside his grandmother’s house, where he was soon shot.

“He was laughing at the photo … he had two cousins, ­really small, and (an) aunty was next to (them) in the swimming pool,” she said.

The court has heard senior police in Alice Springs and Yuendumu agreed on a plan to arrest Walker safely early on Sunday November 10, 2019, if his family did not present him first.

It has also heard that when Constable Rolfe and three IRT colleagues set out in Yuendumu the preceding Saturday night, they were armed with a beanbag shotgun, an AR15 rifle and other weapons and intent on finding and arresting Walker if they could.

In evidence, IRT members have displayed an impressive lack of recall about events leading up to that night.

Senior Constable Anthony Hawkings answered that he could not recall in response to at least 30 prosecution questions about what he saw and heard, what instructions he was given and what conversations he had shortly before the shooting.

He did confirm the IRT had no plan for how they would respond if they came upon Walker or if he turned violent. Constable James Kirstenfeldt gave similar evidence on Wednesday.

The testimony may paint the NT Police Force in a poor light but it is unclear if the jury will deem it sufficient to convict Constable Rolfe of any crime. To find Rolfe guilty of murder, they must be convinced he intended to kill Walker. Almost two weeks into his trial, the crown has not led any evidence that directly reflects on Rolfe’s state of mind.

Constable Rolfe shot Walker three times after the latter stabbed him with scissors. The crown accepts that the first of those shots may have been fired in self-defence.

Defence barrister David Edwardson QC asked Commissioner Wurst if he would describe the IRT as “highly skilled, highly trained, highly disciplined (and) highly competent”. The commissioner replied that he wasn’t sure if the descriptor applied, but it certainly did to a dog handler sent out with the IRT.

The trial continues.

The Australian is producing daily updates of our podcast Yuendumu: The Trial. It will be a forensic analysis of each day’s action in court, presented by journalists Kristin Shorten and Matt Cunningham. Go to theaustralian.com.au/yuendumu for all our coverage and podcast updates. In our app, go to Podcasts each morning for a new episode. You can hear Yuendumu: The Trial wherever you get your podcasts.