Australian inquiry cites racism in Indigenous shooting
SYDNEY: An Australian police officer who shot and killed an Indigenous teenager was a racist drawn to "high adrenaline policing", a landmark inquiry found on Monday.
Racist behaviour was "normalised", too, in his Alice Springs police station, it said.
The findings were delivered nearly five years after the shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in remote central Australia, sparking protests around the country.
The policeman, Zachary Rolfe, was found not guilty of murder in a trial in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin in 2022.
Walker was shot three times during the attempted arrest in the remote outback town of Yuendumu.
He is one of 598 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody since 1991 when detailed records began.
"I found that Mr Rolfe was racist," said Northern Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage, delivering her conclusions after a nearly three-year inquiry.
The policeman, who was dismissed from the police force in 2023, worked in an organisation with the hallmarks of "institutional racism", she said.
There was a "significant risk" that Rolfe's racism and other attitudes affected his response "in a way that increased the likelihood of a fatal outcome", she said.
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Walker's family and community will always believe racism played an "integral part" in his death, the coroner said.
"It is a taint that may stain the NT police."
The coroner cited offensive language used in a so-called awards ceremony for the territory's tactical police, describing them as "grotesque examples of racism".
"Over the decade the awards were given, no complaint was ever made about them."
The policeman's text messages also showed his attraction to "high adrenaline policing", and his "contempt" for some more senior officers as well as remote policing.
These attitudes "had the potential to increase the likelihood of a fatal encounter with Kumanjayi", she said.
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