Yuendumu, the trial: ‘Instantly, he knew he’d gone too far’

Zachary Rolfe knew within seconds of firing three shots into the body of Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker that he had ‘gone too far’, the crown suggests.

Zachary Rolfe leaves the court in Darwin on Tuesday. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Zachary Rolfe knew within seconds of firing three shots into the body of Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker that he had “gone too far”, and immediately moved to justify his actions, the crown suggests.

Prosecutors on Tuesday took the jury in the Northern Territory police constable’s murder trial step by step through video footage of the 2019 incident and played recordings of Constable Rolfe and partner Adam Eberl’s immediate reactions.

“Eberl says, ‘Did you — f..k’,” Philip Strickland SC told the court.

“The accused’s response is important: ‘It’s all good; he was stabbing me; he was stabbing me.’ And Eberl says ‘OK, brus’.

“And then … about 21 seconds after the third shot, the accused says to Eberl: ‘He’s got scissors right here; he’s got scissors right here.’ And then to Walker: ‘Let go of the scissors; let go of the scissors.’ And then you hear Kumanjayi Walker calling out to his mother.”

The deadly shooting occurred barely a minute after Constable Rolfe met Walker. He and three police Immediate Response Team colleagues were in the community of Yuendumu to conduct “high visibility policing” and gather intelligence about Walker’s whereabouts. Walker was wanted for breaching a court order.

Prosecutors say Constable Rolfe abandoned a plan to let Walker hand himself in or arrest him safely if he did not. They say he was motivated by seeing footage of Walker earlier threatening two other officers with an axe and that after becoming involved in a struggle with Walker, Constable Rolfe did not follow his training and “put himself and Eberl in a position of danger”.

“The choice made by the accused to draw his Glock and fire the second and third fatal shots must be seen in the context of this background,” Mr Strickland said.

He also urged the jury to consider why Constable Rolfe did not mention scissors until after the incident. “Did he say those words because he knew that he had gone too far when he fired the second and third shots?” he asked.

“When he said those words, ‘He was stabbing me, he was stabbing me’, he knew the shots were not necessary or reasonable.

“He knew that everything he’d done was captured on the body-worn video … he said those words to justify what he had done.”

The prosecution accepts Constable Rolfe may have been acting in self-defence when he first shot Walker who was struggling with Eberl and after Walker had punctured Constable Rolfe’s shoulder with scissors, but Mr Strickland and his colleagues argue the second and third shots — fired at “point-blank” range while Walker was “pinned” to the ground — amount to murder.

To secure a conviction on that or one of two lesser charges, they must persuade the all-white jury that none of three possible legal defences applies.

Constable Rolfe’s lawyers paint the evidence very differently. David Edwardson QC told the jury that on every occasion his client “discharged his firearm into the body of Kumanjayi Walker … he was acting in good faith … in the reasonable performance of his ­duties and … in self-defence of himself and his partner”.

Mr Edwardson said Constable Rolfe had been taught “edged weapon equals gun”. “That expression, ‘edged weapon equals gun’, will loom large and ripple through almost all of the witnesses in this case,” he said.

“It is the defence position that Constable Rolfe, having been stabbed by a known violent offender and having lawfully shot him once, was justified in continuing to defend his mate and fellow police officer who was just doing his job, as was Constable Rolfe.”

Mr Edwardson told the court Walker was “at all relevant times deploying or attempting to deploy the scissors against Constable Eberl,” who did not “have control” of Walker as the prosecution claims. “The arrest … occurred in a confined space with poor lighting and was over in … seconds.”

The trial continues.