Kumanjayi Walker's death was avoidable; Rolfe had tendency to use unnecessary force, says coroner

SBS Australia

19 hours ago

Warning: this article contains distressing and violent content and the photo of an Aboriginal person who has died. Among the backdrop of the dusty red dirt of the Central desert region, Warlpiri and Luritja families from Yuendumu and nearby Papunya, line the seats of the makeshift courthouse.
The sense of grief is still thick in the air, six years on from the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker at house 511, just streets away.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage travelled to the Yuendumu community, around 300 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs, to deliver the long awaited findings of the coronial inquest into his death. Kumanjayi Walker was killed after being shot three times at close range by then NT police constable Zachary Rolfe. It happened during an attempted arrest in circumstances where all medical services had been withdrawn from the Yuendumu community. Following a six-week trial in 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury found Mr Rolfe acted in self-defence and in line with his police training, acquitting him of all charges.
But the coroner found Kumanjayi's death was avoidable and delivered a scathing assessment of Zachary Rolfe's conduct both before and on the night of the shooting. The coroner is not able to make any findings that suggest Mr Rolfe or any other person is guilty of a criminal offence or that undermine the jury verdict from Mr Rolfe's trial.
Ms Armitage said she was satisfied that on at least five occasions prior to Kumanjayi's death Mr Rolfe used unnecessary force and there were other occasions where force was avoidable.
"There were instances where Mr Rolfe used force without proper regard for the risk of injury to persons, all of whom were Aboriginal boys or men, and significant injuries were caused to suspects because of his use of force," she said.
Credit: Emma Kellaway, NITV Tendency to rush in Ms Armitage said she shared the view expressed by experienced senior police officers who said that this was a case of 'officer induced jeopardy', an expression that describes situations where officers 'needlessly put themselves in danger'; making themselves and others vulnerable and creating a situation that justifies the use of deadly force. "Mr Rolfe had a tendency to rush into situations to get his man without regard for his and others' safety, and in disregard of his training," she said. "He had a tendency to seek out situations in which force would be necessary, because he found combat situations exhilarating, and had an interest in adrenaline-style policing."
The coroner found, rather than follow the arrest plan prepared by Sergeant Julie Frost, the officer in charge at Yuendumu, Mr Rolfe, who was a member of the Immediate Response Team (IRT), deliberately ignored it.
Mr Rolfe thought he knew better than Sergeant Frost and that his superiority would be demonstrated when he led the IRT to "grab up Kumanjayi" on the night of November 9, rather than wait until the next day, as the arrest plan had said, the coroner reported. And Mr Rolfe ignored his training on minimising risk, when he entered house 511 and attempted to identify Kumanjayi, the coroner found, saying he had used one hand to hold his phone close to Kumanjayi's head, leaving part of his body exposed. "Mr Rolfe told Kumanjayi to place his hands behind his back," the report says. "Kumanjayi reacted immediately and began to struggle; he took a small pair of scissors from his pocket and moved in a downwards stabbing motion towards Mr Rolfe.
"It appears that Mr Rolfe blocked the strike with his left arm, and the blow landed on his left shoulder, which caused a minor penetrating injury of the collarbone area."
In response to Kumanjayi's struggle, Constable Eberl said 'Stop it, mate,' and struck him on the side of the face. "Mr Rolfe stepped back, removed his Glock 40 Calibre pistol from his holster and, without warning, fired one round into Kumanjayi's back," the report says, adding it was lucky Constable Eberl was not also shot. After the first shot, both Kumanjayi and Constable Eberl fell to the ground, with the police officer on top of Kumanjayi and holding him down. "Mr Rolfe then moved forward and fired two more rounds into the side of Kumanjayi's torso, which entered his chest at close range, while Kumanjayi lay beneath Constable Eberl. "Kumanjayi continued to struggle for a brief period, and was then handcuffed before the scissors were removed from his right hand ... "At no time did Mr Rolfe issue a standard warning prior to discharging his Glock pistol.
"Two of the three gun shots passed through major organs and a little over an hour later, Kumanjayi passed away from his wounds."
Ms Armitage reports that in the months before Kumanjayi's death, Mr Rolfe had filmed his own official body-worn video of forceful arrests and replayed it to colleagues and sent it to family and friends. "He did so to boast about his dynamic arrests and to engage in banter about his superior physicality and tactical skill," she said. By the middle of 2019, NT Police was on notice that Mr Rolfe needed closer supervision, as multiple complaints had been made on behalf of Aboriginal arrest targets that he had used excessive force, sometimes causing head injuries, and these complaints were (or ought to have been) under investigation. "It should have been obvious that action was required to minimise the potential risk to the public posed by what appeared to be (at best) Mr Rolfe's 'overexuberance', his tendency to rush in and his reluctance to follow rules," Ms Armitage reports. "In the absence of appropriate oversight, Mr Rolfe's tactics were tacitly (and sometimes expressly) approved. "Further, two sergeants who were supposed to be mentoring and supervising him joined in his use of racist language and praised Mr Rolfe's superiority over 'bush cops' or other officers they derided.
"That too contributed to Mr Rolfe's sense of superiority and their behaviour provides important context for understanding why Mr Rolfe ignored Sgt Frost and substituted his own ill-conceived and hasty approach for Kumanjayi's arrest."
The coroner made 32 recommendations, including that NT Police strengthen their anti-racism strategy and make it public. "The NT police force must take steps through its training, supervision, culture and leadership to ensure racist attitudes do not develop, and if they do, they are identified and corrected and are not tolerated or condoned," she said. "Concerning racism, there was direct evidence of clearly racist comments made by Mr Rolfe and between Mr Rolfe and his superiors in the lead up to Kumanjayi's death, ... text messages that ... contained extremely racist names and references to Aboriginal people."
Ms Armitage paid her condolences to Kumanjayi's family and community and said he was loved and missed.
"Kumanjayi's family members accept his frailties and vulnerabilities, they urge me to remember him for his humanity and to acknowledge the whole person they have lost," she said. In her testimony Kumanjayi's kinship mother, Leanne Oldfield, told the inquiry that she goes to Yuendumu to visit and clean the grave, put new flowers in. "Sometimes when I go for one night, I sleep at memory house," she said. "Then in the morning I go visit to graveyard, clean all the grasses, clean the yard. "I take Kumanjayi's dog, Red, with me when I go. "Having Red gives me a little bit of happy. "But sometimes, I get lonely.
"Kumanjayi was my only son."