The shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker by Constable Zachary Rolfe sent shock waves through the Northern Territory that reverberated around the country.
The tragedy unfolded in the remote community of Yuendumu on Warlpiri lands, as the sun was setting on a Saturday night in November 2019.
A big funeral for Kumanjayi Walker's grandfather had been held that day and hundreds of people from across the Territory attended.
Constable Rolfe was charged with murder four days later. Delays and setbacks would see his day in court postponed for almost another two and a half years.
With the jury delivering a 'not guilty' verdict on Friday, it closes the book on a trial that saw more than 40 witnesses testify and almost 100 exhibits tendered in evidence.
Zachary Rolfe and his defence team address the media after the police officer was found not guilty of all charges. Source: NITV News
Here's what the jury had to consider.
The lead-up
A sequence of events led to the deadly encounter between police and Kumanjayi Walker on November 9, 2019.
Devastatingly, it began with the 19-year-old's wish to attend a family member's funeral in Yuendumu.
Kumanjayi was at an alcohol rehabilitation facility in Alice Springs at the time. He left and removed an electronic monitoring bracelet he was wearing, thereby breaching a court-ordered sentence, and eventually made his way to Yuendumu.
Two police officers stationed in the community were tasked with arresting him.
Kumanjayi Walker was shot and killed by Constable Rolfe in Yuendumu in 2019. Source: Supplied
On November 6, three days before the shooting, the officers attempted to apprehend Kumanjayi Walker, but the encounter turned violent in what became known, during the course of the trial, as the 'axe incident'.
The axe incident
Yuendumu officers Senior Constable Chris Hand and Senior Constable Lanyon Smith were veteran policemen who had served in Aboriginal communities for years.
They attended 'House 577' (buildings are so designated in the Yuendemu), the home of Lottie Robertson. Her granddaughter Rikeisha was Kumanjayi Walker's partner.
The officers entered the home and found Kumanjayi Walker in a bedroom with Rikeisha.
The 19-year old picked up a hatchet used by the family to chop firewood, and threatened both officers, before dropping the weapon and fleeing on foot.
In body-worn camera vision of the incident's immediate aftermath, the two officers can be heard agreeing that the teenager was "never going to use" the weapon.
Neither officer drew their firearm during the incident. Hand agreed with defence barrister David Edwardson's assertion that he "froze" when confronted with the axe.
Kumanjayi Walker escaped arrest that day. The two officers returned to House 577, issuing a chilling warning to Lottie Robertson that if Kumanjayi threatened an officer again, "he might get shot".
The I.R.T.
Three days later, on November 9, a specialised group was dispatched to Yuendumu to help the under-resourced officers at the local station.
The 'Immediate Response Team' is a part-time unit of general duties police officers in Alice Springs, whose key role is to cordon and contain high-risk offenders, and wait for support from the elite Tactical Response Group.
The IRT are provided with extra training in weapons and tactics, and provided with AR-15 military-style assault rifles and shotguns, along with body armour and paramilitary uniforms.
Constable Zachary Rolfe, then 28, was a member of the IRT, and was dispatched with three other officers, as well as a dog handler and dog, to relieve at Yuendumu station.
Superintendent Jody Nobbs was the officer in charge of policing in remote communites in Central Australia.
He agreed to the deployment and drew up the mission plan.
After several discussions and emails with the officer-in-charge of Yuendumu, Sergeant Julie Frost, the plan was finalised just before 5pm and emailed to the IRT .
Superintendent Knobbs said the plan stated that the IRT members were to provide high-visibility policing in the community from 11pm that night and help arrest Kumanjayi Walker the following morning at around 5am.
The IRT members and the dog handler travelled the roughly three and a half hours from Alice Springs to Yuendumu in three police vehicles, and arrived on the afternoon of the shooting. They were met by the officer in charge of Yuendumu Police station, Sgt Julie Frost.
Sergeant Julie Frost
A veteran bush nurse who had worked in Aboriginal communities for 16 years before becoming a cop, Sergeant Julie Frost had prepared an arrest plan for the capture of Kumanjayi Walker, which had been partly negotiated with members of the teenager's family.
Saturday, 9 November was the day of the funeral that Kumanjayi Walker had escaped the rehabilitation facility to attend.
The plan was to arrest Kumanjayi at 5am the following morning. Several witnesses testified during the trial that early morning arrests were usually easier and less violent.
There were also discussions of a voluntary surrender by Kumanjayi Walker.
Sergeant Julie Frost departs the NT Supreme Court in Darwin. Frost was the officer-in-charge at Yuendumu police station when Zachary Rolfe shot Kumanjayi Walker Source: AAP
His uncle Derek Williams was part of those discussions.
Mr Williams was a Senior Aboriginal Community Police Officer, or ACPO, with 15 years’ experience.
Derek Williams had known Kumanjayi Walker all his life and had previously arrested him on several occasions without incident.
ACPOS were described in court as a crucial link between the police and the community on language and cultural issues.
After Kumanjayi Walker was shot, it was Mr Williams who calmed angry community members who had descended on the police station armed with rocks.
Several members of the IRT repeatedly told the trial they could "not recall" seeing the arrest plans or any of its details, and that Sgt Frost had told the group that if they saw him, “By all means lock him up."
Under cross-examination by Rolfe’s defence lawyer David Edwardson QC, Sgt Frost told the court she had meant “if they saw [Kumanjayi Walker] walking on the street,” and not in a house, as the arrest turned out to be.
Mr Edwardson also accused Sergeant Frost of concealing evidence, after it was revealed she wrote a chronology of events related to the shooting but it was never included in her official statement.
Searching for Kumanjayi
Around 6:30pm, the four member Immediate Response Team, some armed with military style AR-15 assault rifles and a bean-bag shotgun, they began patrolling the community around 7:00pm.
The first house they visited was 577, where the axe incident had taken place three days earlier.
Rolfe had unclipped one of the safety devices on his holster while searching the house and had his hand on his gun throughout, in the presence of a child.
The ten year old boy told IRT member Constable James Kirstenfeldt that Kumanjayi Walker had left just minutes earlier, and might be at House 511.
As darkness fell the group fanned out and started approaching other members of the community.
One of them was Elizabeth Snape. She had travelled from Katherine to attend the funeral, and was known to Kumanjayi as "Aunty".
Holding her crying baby, she saw Constable Anthony Hawkings with an AR-15 assault rilfe and asked,"Why he's got a gun?"
"We all carry guns," replied Constable Adam Eberl, the officer wearing the body-worn camera.
"It's like he's got it aimed to shoot someone," said Ms Snape.
"Nah he's not aiming to shoot anyone is he?" replied Constable Eberl.
"Somebody probably shouldn’t run at police with an axe," he added, referring to the 'axe incident'.
House 511
It was shortly after 7:00pm when Constable Rolfe and his partner Constable Eberl entered House 511.
In the dim light, they saw a young man standing there alone. Neither of them noticed that he had his hand in his pocket.
Unbeknown to the two officers, they had found Kumanjayi Walker.
Rolfe and Eberl quickly approached the young man, and asked him to identify himself.
During the trial, a key prosecution witness Detective Senior Sergeant Barram was
Body-worn camera vision shows Kumanjayi Walker moments before he was shot. Source: Supplied: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
The weapons and tactics instructor trained NT Police officers and identified a number of tactical mistakes made by the two Constables in house 511 that night.
“Why would you put yourself in such close proximity to him?" questioned Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Barram.
"There’s no tactical distance between them. Limited time to be able to react. Completely goes against our training."
Giving the false name of 'Vernon Dixon', Kumanjayi was asked to stand against a wall while the officers attempted to identify him, holding up a mobile phone with the teenager's mugshot displayed.
Rolfe later testified that he almost couldn't identify Kumanjayi, but eventually decided it was him when he noticed a distinctive scar on his ear.
Once Rolfe had identified Kumanjayi, he asked him to put his hands behind his back so he could be handcuffed.
The shooting
As body-worn camera vision shows, Kumanjayi Walker resisted and a scuffle began. It was at this moment the teenager stabbed Constable Rolfe in the left shoulder with a pair of surgical scissors.
During the struggle Constable Rolfe stepped back and pulled out his NT Police standard-issue Glock 9mm pistol.
The wound sustained by Constable Rolfe after Kumanjayi Walker stabbed him. Source: Supplied: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
As his partner, Constable Eberl, wrestled with the teenager, Rolfe fired a shot into Kumanjayi Walker's lower back.
Eberl and Kumanjayi then fell onto a mattress that was in the room, with Eberl landing partially on top of the 19-year-old and attempting to restrain him.
Constable Rolfe then leaned over the pair, put his hand against his partner's back and fired a second shot 2.6 seconds after the first, and then a third half a second later, at point blank range.
The officers then handcuffed the 19 year- old and removed the scissors from his right hand.
Constable Eberl wrestles with Kumanjayi Walker in body-worn vision of the incident. Source: Supplied: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
Amid the screams of community members Constables Rolfe and Eberl dragged Kumanjayi Walker out and placed him in the back of a police four wheel drive.
Constable Rolfe then jumped into the police cage with him and they returned to the Yuendumu police station.
The community health clinic was closed at the time and nursing staff had left the community after a series of break-ins at their homes.
With just "basic first aid kits" there was little police could do.
The trial was told the second bullet passed from one side of Kumanjayi Walker’s body to the other, penetrating Kumanjayi Walker’s liver, spleen, and kidney.
The bullet left a gaping hole in his right lung, which cause the lung to collapse, he couldn't breathe and was bleeding to death.
Kumanjayi Walker died at 8:36pm on the floor of the lock-up at the Yuendumu police station, while his family outside begged to be allowed in to see him see him, but were refused entry.
'Knife equals gun'
During the trial, the phrase 'knife equals gun' was invoked repeatedly by both the prosecution and the defence.
It relates to an element of police training that teaches officers to draw their gun if an assailant is wielding an "edged weapon", like the scissors Kumanjayi Walker had.
In such situations, officers are trained to aim for the 'centre of seen body mass', i.e. the largest part of the body that is visible, and, if they believe their life or the life of someone else is in danger, to shoot until the person is 'incapacitated'.
The prosecution agreed, given the circumstances of Kumanjayi's violent attack, that the first shot fired by Rolfe was justified and in line with his training. Constable Rolfe was not charged over it.
They argued, however, that the second and third shots were unnecessary, unlawful and amounted to murder.
The Crown said it was called a ‘double tap' in police and military circles, designed to inflict maximum injury or death.
The defence however argued that the same circumstances that justified the first shot extended to the other shots as well.
The scissors
The ability of Kumanjayi Walker to inflict lethal damage with the scissors he had secreted in his pocket was debated at length with several expert witnesses.
The Northern Territory's Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr Maryanne Tiemensma prepared a report for the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider the capacity of the scissors Kumanjayi Walker stabbed Constable Rolfe with “to cause a penetrating injury.”
The medical scissors wielded by Kumanjayi Walker during his arrest. They measure 13cm across. Source: Supplied: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
Dr Tiemensma described the scissors as blunt.
“I don’t think in these circumstances, with these scissors, it could’ve caused significantly penetrating injuries.”
Under defence cross-examination she said photos for form her opinions and had never physically examined the scissors.
Senior trauma surgeon Dr Keith Towsey told the trial that in his opinion the scissors were potentially lethal, a view he expressed to police an investigator in 2020 but was never asked to provide a report.
A forensic chemist with the Australian Federal Police, also examined the scissors and analysed the textile damage on the uniforms worn by Constable Rolfe and Sergeant Adam Eberl during the incident.
Timothy Simpson wrapped the officer's uniforms in pork belly which is used in his profession as the only validated substitute for human flesh.
After a series of stabbing tests Mr Simpson concluded it was the sharp blade and not the rounded blunt blade of the scissors that caused the damage.
Queensland forensic pathologist Dr Paull Botterill also gave evidence Friday.
He was questioned about his opinion as to whether the scissors had the capacity to inflict a serious or potentially fatal wound to a police officer, given the position of Kumanjayi Walker during the attempted arrest.
“And it’s very unlikely... to result in a potentially fatal injury."
Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland sought to discredit the notion that Kumanjayi Walker posed a lethal threat after he had been shot once, and Constable Eberl was partially on top of him.
Dr Andrew McIntosh was called to give evidence in biomechanics, the science of creating force with, and the effects of force on, the human body.
He told the court that while the two officers struggled with Kumanjayi Walker there was a threat to both of them, but “as they were separated, the threat diminished.”
After Constable Rolfe fired the first shot, Constable Eberl wrestled Kumanjayi Walker down on to a mattress, where body-worn vision appears to show the 95kg officer partially pressing his weight onto the teenager.
At was at this point that Constable Rolfe fired the second and third shots at close range.
Biomechanics expert Dr Andrew McIntosh testified in court Friday. Source: NITV
“Mr Walker was unlikely to be a direct threat to Officer Rolfe at the time of the second and third gunshots," testified Dr McIntosh.
“[He was] a low threat to Constable Eberl at the time of the second and third gunshots."
However the defence argued that even a blunt object, such as the scissors, could deal a fatal blow if applied with enough force to an artery.
Consequently, they argued, Kumanjayi Walker still posed a deadly threat to the officers when Rolfe shot him the second and third times.
Closing remarks
Prosecutor Philip Strickland and defence barrister David Edwardson QC had a mountain of evidence and testimony to summarise for the jury when they rose to deliver their final addresses on Wednesday this week.
Mr Edwardson highlighted the three key elements of the defence.
He told the jury that every time his client pulled the trigger, he was acting in “good faith”, in the “reasonable performance of his duty as a police officer”, and in his “own self-defence” and that of his partner, Constable Adam Eberl.
Mr Edwardson said as a member of the Northern Territory Police, Constable Rolfe was taught and trained that an "edged weapon equals gun" and he was doing what he was trained to do when Kumanjayi Walker “viciously” tried to stab both officers.
Defence barrister David Edwardson accompanies his client Zachary Rolfe, now a free man. Source: NITV News.
“The only appropriate response was to draw his firearm and pull the trigger discharging each bullet into the seen body mass of Kumanjayi Walker until the threat was removed," Edwardson told the jury.
Prosecutor Mr Strickland, for his part, asked the jury to consider the central issue in the Crown case, "was he legally justified in firing the second and third shots?”
He said the Crown must also disprove three main elements of Constable Rolfe’s defence; that he acted in self-defence, he was acting in the course of his duty as a police officer, and it was “reasonably necessary to fire the second and third shots to carry out his functions as a police officer.”
Mr Strickland told the jury the Crown case boiled down to two things.
Prosecutor Philip Strickland examined Constable Zachary Rolfe in the witness stand on Thursday. Source: Supplied: Guy McLean
“That Constable Eberl in fact had effectively restrained Kumanjayi Walker when he was on top of him on the mattress.”
And that, “the accused did not hold an honest belief that it was necessary for him to fire the second and third shots in order to protect himself – those two shots were not a reasonable response.“
Mr Strickland told the jury the evidence before them proves that Constable Rolfe did not see Kumanjayi Walker stabbing Constable Eberl and he did not fear for his partner's life when he fired shots two and three.
The crown described how Constable Rolfe's words to his partner after firing all three shots, "he's stabbing you he's stabbing me" was a "lie to justify the unjustifiable."
The verdict and reaction
Before sending the seven men and five women of the jury out Justice John Burns reminded them of a concession the defence itself made in its final address.
If they accepted Constable Rolfe’s evidence that he believed Kumanjayi Walker was stabbing his partner Constable Adam Eberl whilst they were fighting on the mattress they must acquit.
“if you believe as a reasonable possibility that that evidence is true, you must find him, that is the accused, not guilty on all three counts. No question about it.” Justice Burns said.
A contingent of Kumanjayi Walker’s family and Yuendumu community elders, who had battled not only COVID-19 outbreaks on their lands, but endured torrential flooding that made travel to Darwin slow and dangerous, had stayed for the duration of the trial, and were joined by many others later.
The jury deliberated for seven and a half hours over two days before returning unanimous verdicts of "not guilty" for the charge of murder, and the alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.
Speaking outside the court, Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves expressed their despair and disappointment, and angrily demanded a reduction in police presence and powers in his homelands.
“Enough is enough. It’s got to stop,” he said.
Warlpiri Elder from Yuendumu Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves outside the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin. Source: AAP
“We want a ceasefire. No more guns in our communities. It must never happen again. The police must put down their weapons.”
The family, who endured five weeks of often graphic testimony and vision, were at pains to describe their disappointment at the verdict.
“We are deeply saddened by the results and cannot begin to explain our grief in words,” said Kumanjayi Walker’s cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown said.
Constable Rolfe, for his part, said few words, but welcomed the verdict.
"[It was] the right decision," he told assembled media.
"But a lot of people are hurting today, Kumanjayi's family and community… so I'm going to leave this space for them," he said.
Speakers hit out at what they called an all-white jury, saying that Aboriginal people are left out of the judicial system.
"We get no justice in Kardiya (non-Aboriginal) system we are feeling so empty," Valerie Napaljarri Martin said
"It’s a racist system we have got here in Australia."
"We are devastated by this injustice, and the court has not fulfilled its responsibility to hold Rolfe accountable for what he's done."
Constable Rolfe's Defence Barrister David Edwardson QC described the shooting as tragic , but condemned the investigation and charges as "appalling" and warned "consequences will flow".
Both sides agreed that a future coronial inquest would provide evidence that was not part of the trial.
Ms Samara Fernandez-Brown said, “ we hope our truth will finally be heard and so will questions we have not had answers to, so this does not happen to another family."
In the last week of the trial another 19-year-old Aboriginal man had been shot by Northern Territory Police in the city of Palmerston just outside Darwin.
Police said they were responding to a domestic dispute, but later admitted the two incidents were not linked.
Police fired six shots and deployed a taser at the teenager and said he confronted them with a spear.
The 19 year old remains in a critical condition in Royal Darwin Hospital.
