NOT GUILTY Australia - Kumanjayi Walker, 19, fatally shot by LE, Yuendumu, Nov 2019

[Trooper]

When the officers moved to arrest him, Walker stabbed Rolfe in the chest with a pair of scissors, causing a small wound. Rolfe told the court he instinctively reached for his Glock and noticed Walker’s hand already on it.

When he made that allegation in court, it was the first time he’d done so. He hadn’t issued commands to Walker, nor had he warned Eberl. He hadn’t mentioned it to his colleagues afterwards. He didn’t mention it in his interview with The Australian.

Prosecutor Philip Strickland, SC, suggested he was lying to the court, which Rolfe denied.

Eberl restrained Walker from behind. Rolfe said Walker was continuing to stab at Eberl with his right hand. That can’t be made out on the footage and Eberl neither complained about it nor had any injuries apart from a scratch on his left arm. Rolfe drew his Glock and fired one shot into Walker’s torso.

 

[Trooper]

Prosecutors did not allege that first shot was unlawful. It did not cause Walker’s death. The trial came down to whether Rolfe was justified in firing the second and third shots.

Immediately after the first shot, Eberl tackled Walker onto a mattress and began “ground stabilising” him. In the footage, Walker can be seen lying on his right side, with Eberl above him. Walker’s right arm – the one holding the scissors – can’t be seen.

Eberl told the court he believed Walker’s right arm was underneath his own body. A biomechanics expert said that even if it wasn’t, any force Walker was able to muster would have been minimal and easily dealt with by Eberl.

 

[Trooper]

Rolfe told the court he saw Walker continuing to stab Eberl’s neck, chest and shoulder.

Nothing in the footage or any of the other evidence is consistent with this. Rolfe told the court he didn’t have enough time to shout anything.

He did, however, have time to place his left hand on Eberl’s back, and shoot two more rounds into Walker’s torso. One of them eventually caused Walker’s death.

Part of this tragedy is that had the shooting occurred near a major hospital, Walker would probably have survived.

When Eberl realised what had happened (“Did you? .”) Rolfe said, “It’s all good, he was stabbing me, he was stabbing you.” In court, Rolfe explained he said those words not to justify what he’d just done but to help Eberl “come down” from a state of “auditory exclusion”.

 

[Trooper]

Rolfe contradicted his superiors on training and defensive tactics. Strickland tied him in logical knots, leaving him unable to say why, despite apparently being so well trained, he failed to take even the most basic precautions against a person he’d determined was extremely violent.

Eberl could easily have endorsed Rolfe’s claims about Walker’s right hand. He didn’t.

Rolfe’s lawyer, David Edwardson, QC, gave the jury a single expert. In the mid-1990s, Ben McDevitt rewrote the Australian Federal Police’s approach to the use of force. Now semi-retired, he endorsed most of Rolfe’s decisions and assertions.

He even said Rolfe should have had his Glock already drawn when he entered the houses in Yuendumu. “I’ve gone into dozens of houses,” he said, “with far more firepower than what Mr Rolfe had, which have had children in them.”

 

[Trooper]

Edwardson skipped over Eberl’s evidence in his closing and suggested Rolfe had only been charged because of a conspiracy in the NT police executive to do so. The jury that acquitted Rolfe had no Aboriginal member, although it did include one juror whose sister is a serving police officer. A 2013 review by the NT Law Reform Committee recommended reforms to encourage more Indigenous jurors, yet they remain unimplemented.



Since the verdict, Walker’s family and the chief executive of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Priscilla Atkins, have echoed longstanding calls to remove guns from police in Aboriginal communities. Gunner has so far resisted them.

Further details about the shooting, its lead-up and its aftermath will emerge at a coronial inquest, scheduled for three months from September.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on Mar 19, 2022 as "The killing of Kumanjayi Walker".

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Russell Marks is an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University and works as a criminal defence lawyer in the Northern Territory.

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[Trooper]

NT Chief Minister says Zachary Rolfe's Immediate Response Team disbanded following shooting of Kumanjayi Walker (msn.com)

No surprises here...

'The specialist police unit that was sent to Yuendumu to arrest Kumanjayi Walker before he was fatally shot by Constable Zachary Rolfe has been disbanded, Chief Minister Michael Gunner has revealed.'

( Gunner is the equiv.of the Governor of a State, a State Premier, The main Minister of the Crown for the Northern Territory)


'''During an ABC Radio Darwin interview on Tuesday, Mr Gunner was asked about his response to revelations contained in court documents that Constable Rolfe had described the IRT as "cowboy stuff with no rules" in a text message several months before the shooting.

"My understanding is the incident [sic] response team has been suspended and abandoned, so there is no longer an incident [sic] response team," Mr Gunner said.

Mr Gunner said a separate police unit that was "highly trained and very professional" was better placed to deal with the types of deployments previously undertaken by the IRT.'

"Effectively, it's the TRG [Tactical Response Group]'s job and the TRG are exceptional," he said.

"I'm not sure why [the IRT] was created to be honest, but it's now no longer in existence."

During Constable Rolfe’s trial, the jury was told the IRT had two main functions: to provide additional general support to remote communities, and to help with high-risk operations until the Darwin-based Tactical Response Group arrived.

( So there goes Rolfe's job. Eberl has been promoted to Sergeant, and out of that group. Hawkings, I don't know. He is a Snr Sgt, maybe he was busted down a rank or two. But his job is no longer operative.

Kirstenfeldt.. I don't know, but his job has gone as well. The dog handler bloke, I don't know, he is attached to the local station , I think.

As to where Rolfe is, or will be , employed , anywhere within the Northern Territory Police Org, is a mystery so far. Pushing paper, directing traffic, checking parking permits. All the small details.

Rolfe would maybe find that kind of job a bit dreary.. I wonder if any other Police Org here in AU will employ him, certainly not for any remote or rural work I would think, considering the huge trouble he manages to make with very little positive return.

He could work overseas, Dubai, Congo, maybe Argentina in a pinch, maybe he might join up some guerilla force in some ridiculous pseudo army gang somewhere... )

 

[JLZ]

NT Chief Minister says Zachary Rolfe's Immediate Response Team disbanded following shooting of Kumanjayi Walker (msn.com)

No surprises here...

'The specialist police unit that was sent to Yuendumu to arrest Kumanjayi Walker before he was fatally shot by Constable Zachary Rolfe has been disbanded, Chief Minister Michael Gunner has revealed.'

( Gunner is the equiv.of the Governor of a State, a State Premier, The main Minister of the Crown for the Northern Territory)


'''During an ABC Radio Darwin interview on Tuesday, Mr Gunner was asked about his response to revelations contained in court documents that Constable Rolfe had described the IRT as "cowboy stuff with no rules" in a text message several months before the shooting.

"My understanding is the incident [sic] response team has been suspended and abandoned, so there is no longer an incident [sic] response team," Mr Gunner said.

Mr Gunner said a separate police unit that was "highly trained and very professional" was better placed to deal with the types of deployments previously undertaken by the IRT.'

"Effectively, it's the TRG [Tactical Response Group]'s job and the TRG are exceptional," he said.

"I'm not sure why [the IRT] was created to be honest, but it's now no longer in existence."

During Constable Rolfe’s trial, the jury was told the IRT had two main functions: to provide additional general support to remote communities, and to help with high-risk operations until the Darwin-based Tactical Response Group arrived.

( So there goes Rolfe's job. Eberl has been promoted to Sergeant, and out of that group. Hawkings, I don't know. He is a Snr Sgt, maybe he was busted down a rank or two. But his job is no longer operative.

Kirstenfeldt.. I don't know, but his job has gone as well. The dog handler bloke, I don't know, he is attached to the local station , I think.

As to where Rolfe is, or will be , employed , anywhere within the Northern Territory Police Org, is a mystery so far. Pushing paper, directing traffic, checking parking permits. All the small details.

Rolfe would maybe find that kind of job a bit dreary.. I wonder if any other Police Org here in AU will employ him, certainly not for any remote or rural work I would think, considering the huge trouble he manages to make with very little positive return.

He could work overseas, Dubai, Congo, maybe Argentina in a pinch, maybe he might join up some guerilla force in some ridiculous pseudo army gang somewhere... )

I read something about the training of the TRG. I thought it sounded like a priming to think of any situation they were called to as a probable rapid-response shoot-it-out emergency.

I don't quite understand what's happened with the IRT. There is more than one four-person team, surely? So are all the teams disbanded or just this one? Or is there one four-person team but a larger group of officers who would be slotted into the four positions at different times?

 

[Trooper]

I read something about the training of the TRG. I thought it sounded like a priming to think of any situation they were called to as a probable rapid-response shoot-it-out emergency.

I don't quite understand what's happened with the IRT. There is more than one four-person team, surely? So are all the teams disbanded or just this one? Or is there one four-person team but a larger group of officers who would be slotted into the four positions at different times?

How I read it was, it was a loose association of blokes that were not , for some reason, perhaps family obligations , or perhaps not really quite suitable for the Tactical response due to some personality defect, or skill deficit, and so were bundled into a group of people ( Part time, which Rolfe said he was, he could not get a permanent job there , and one has to ask, why not? army trained, young, lots of Canberra clout, physically fit, prepared to travel from Canberra to Alice Springs for a few hours work a week , what was the problem? ) ...

What Micheal Gunner has done is, he has made that loose association of people inclined to like police work, but not quite up to par to be employed professionally and permanently as such, are no longer to be considered as a rational working operation.

Gunner , obviously, is making it a standard , that the professionals, those of long standing police training, as opposed , perhaps, to army training, are bonded into the Tactical Group ( where I think Eberl , on his promotion was attached to , but not Kirstenfeldt, I believe ) .. and that Tactical Group, which is capable of absorbing instructions, and orders, and quite able to work with the local police Sergeants, without haring off on some mindless aggressive action entirely of their own making , will , hopefully, do a better job.

I would think that Gunner would actually vet them himself after this terrible event.

They could not do a worse job, than that which this particular IRT did. ... that is guaranteed.

 

[Trooper]

ALso,, the headline is a bit misleading..I think.. It was not Rolfe's Team. '
Zachary Rolfe's Immediate Response Team


Hawkings was the Snr Sgt, .. which would make him the Team Leader, under normal circumstances, but from the evidence, Kirstenfeldt , as a lowly Constable, felt entitled enough to argue with Julie Frost, the Snr Sgt at Yuendumu, Rolfe , as a lowly Constable , felt entitled enough to simply make up his own mission value, his own target, and his own projected outcome, despite the instructions given ...


And I don't know what rank the dog handler bloke had, ..he , for some reason, decided to sort of opt out and wait down the street, while all this shooting and killing was going on.

 

[Trooper]

The dog handler copper sort of faded from view, but he makes a cameo appearance in Kirstenfeldt's body camera clip, Kirstenfeldt is also down the street a few houses away, ( no one knows why ) and he hears the first shot and takes off running down the street, the dog rears up and the handler and dog run after Kirstenfeldt, but when they get to the front door ( 2 and 3 shots have been fired by now ) Kirstenfeldt yells to 'take the dog away, take it out, get it away ,', so DH copper and dog back down the 2 steps and out to the front fence ..

The dog handlers body camera was not part of the evidence as far as I can find, I will keep looking though, out of my own curiosity .

 

[JLZ]

How I read it was, it was a loose association of blokes that were not , for some reason, perhaps family obligations , or perhaps not really quite suitable for the Tactical response due to some personality defect, or skill deficit, and so were bundled into a group of people ( Part time, which Rolfe said he was, he could not get a permanent job there , and one has to ask, why not? army trained, young, lots of Canberra clout, physically fit, prepared to travel from Canberra to Alice Springs for a few hours work a week , what was the problem? ) ...

What Micheal Gunner has done is, he has made that loose association of people inclined to like police work, but not quite up to par to be employed professionally and permanently as such, are no longer to be considered as a rational working operation.

Gunner , obviously, is making it a standard , that the professionals, those of long standing police training, as opposed , perhaps, to army training, are bonded into the Tactical Group ( where I think Eberl , on his promotion was attached to , but not Kirstenfeldt, I believe ) .. and that Tactical Group, which is capable of absorbing instructions, and orders, and quite able to work with the local police Sergeants, without haring off on some mindless aggressive action entirely of their own making , will , hopefully, do a better job.

I would think that Gunner would actually vet them himself after this terrible event.

They could not do a worse job, than that which this particular IRT did. ... that is guaranteed.

I think it's the wrong approach to use a FIFO group for ordinary policing. There should be sufficient funding for permanently local police officers who belong to the community and have a stake in the community's welfare. Throughout the Territory. And the same for health care. A tactical response group sounds like something that might work in a country where there are crazy gunmen taking hostages in one place or another practically every day. So you have expert groups who travel between emergencies. But you don't use officers with military-style training for day-to-day situations that basically need defusing because a couple of the regular staff are off sick. Spend the money and give up the tactical juggling.

 

[Trooper]

Jurors who sat in the Zachary Rolfe murder trial might now feel cheated – that’s understandable | Richard Ackland | The Guardian

Jurors who sat on the Zachary Rolfe murder trial in the supreme court of the Northern Territory might be feeling cheated.

A week after the not-guilty verdict came down, the court lifted more than two dozen suppression orders that had kept from the jury information about the alleged previous conduct of the accused.

This was “tendency evidence” that Justice John Burns ruled would prejudice the jury if made available during the trial of Rolfe on charges relating to the death of Kumanjayi Walker. His defence team successfully argued that his alleged history within the NT police was not admissible as evidence, in part because no findings of wrongdoing had been made against Rolfe in relation to four allegedly violent arrests, and because a judge agreed they were not directly relevant to the shooting death of Walker.

Judge Greg Borchers found that Rolfe lacked credibility and had injured Ryder by punching him in the face and deliberately banging his head on the floor – injuries that required 16 stitches......

Unfortunately, Rolfe hadn’t turned on his body camera, claiming that the device was relatively new in Alice Springs and his “muscle memory hadn’t developed”. Fortunately, another’s officer’s body camera was on and showed, contrary to Rolfe’s evidence, that Ryder had not tried to hit anyone at the time of his arrest.

 

[JLZ]

Jurors who sat in the Zachary Rolfe murder trial might now feel cheated – that’s understandable | Richard Ackland | The Guardian

Jurors who sat on the Zachary Rolfe murder trial in the supreme court of the Northern Territory might be feeling cheated.

A week after the not-guilty verdict came down, the court lifted more than two dozen suppression orders that had kept from the jury information about the alleged previous conduct of the accused.

This was “tendency evidence” that Justice John Burns ruled would prejudice the jury if made available during the trial of Rolfe on charges relating to the death of Kumanjayi Walker. His defence team successfully argued that his alleged history within the NT police was not admissible as evidence, in part because no findings of wrongdoing had been made against Rolfe in relation to four allegedly violent arrests, and because a judge agreed they were not directly relevant to the shooting death of Walker.

Judge Greg Borchers found that Rolfe lacked credibility and had injured Ryder by punching him in the face and deliberately banging his head on the floor – injuries that required 16 stitches......

Unfortunately, Rolfe hadn’t turned on his body camera, claiming that the device was relatively new in Alice Springs and his “muscle memory hadn’t developed”. Fortunately, another’s officer’s body camera was on and showed, contrary to Rolfe’s evidence, that Ryder had not tried to hit anyone at the time of his arrest.

So, perhaps they can now look at charging Rolfe over some of the other incidents in his history?

 

[Trooper]

So, perhaps they can now look at charging Rolfe over some of the other incidents in his history?

It does seem somewhat appropriate. In my opinion, although it seems these particular events actually did go before the courts. In some way, that explains the swiftish charging of Rolfe with murder, as if someone said, not bloody Rolfe again, this time we have to come down hard...

Some other forces seem to be at work in this matter, in this police org, , is how it seems to me. A distinct divide, police union versus police rankings.. other political factors, personnel factors, some groups of police and some other groups at loggerheads. All up, not a fully functioning organisation in some ways, JLZ, perhaps??

 

[JLZ]

It does seem somewhat appropriate. In my opinion, although it seems these particular events actually did go before the courts. In some way, that explains the swiftish charging of Rolfe with murder, as if someone said, not bloody Rolfe again, this time we have to come down hard...

Some other forces seem to be at work in this matter, in this police org, , is how it seems to me. A distinct divide, police union versus police rankings.. other political factors, personnel factors, some groups of police and some other groups at loggerheads. All up, not a fully functioning organisation in some ways, JLZ, perhaps??

About the events going through the courts . . . well the one where the judge Greg Borchers (who is known for saying things that prove controversial) said Rolfe lied to the court, that was the trial of a person Rolfe apparently bashed. So Rolfe himself wasn't on trial. I don't think any of the incidents would be talked about as they are in MSM now if Rolfe had been charged and found not guilty. On the other hand, if he'd been charged and found guilty, the defence team wouldn't have been able to argue that "no findings of wrongdoing had been made against Rolfe in relation to four allegedly violent arrests".

'Not a fully functioning organization': I don't know. I think it's good that there's dissension. Imagine if they were all like Rolfe.

 

[Trooper]

Evidence not examined in Zachary Rolfe trial could be scrutinised at Kumanjayi Walker’s inquest (msn.com)

Acting NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage will hold an inquest into the death in September but a directions hearing on Tuesday may give an insight into the extent of issues she will investigate.

Prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said the trial had not been able to explore every issue raised by the shooting.

“We anticipate that those issues, and the evidence that could not be examined in this trial, will be very carefully scrutinised at the inquest,” he said.

“It is our view that the family of Kumanjayi Walker, and the Warlpiri community, and indeed the Australian people deserve no less than that full scrutiny.”.......

 

[Trooper]

NT Coroner acknowledges grief of Yuendumu community ahead of inquest into Kumanjayi Walker's death - ABC News


The Acting Northern Territory Coroner has acknowledged the "grief and shock" felt by community members after the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, in the first hearing ahead of a coronial inquest into his death.

"I acknowledge that Kumanjayi's death has profoundly impacted the family and will continue to do so.

"It also impacted on the police officers present when he died, the police officer put on trial as a result of his death and the NT Police force generally."

Seven "interested parties" have been given permission to appear during the inquest, allowing them to cross-examine witnesses and make submissions to the coroner.

Queensland Barrister Paula Morreau will represent Mr Walker's adoptive mother Leanne Oldfield Brown and the Brown family.

Yuendumu heals after verdict
Anguish, grief, strength, spirit. This is how a desert community "let everything out" hours after NT Police constable Zachary Rolfe was found not guilty over the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.



"Separate representation as between the two groups is requested and said… to be necessary to properly represent their joint and separate interests," said Ms Dwyer.

Constable Rolfe will be represented by the same legal team he had throughout the criminal trial, David Edwardson QC and Luke Officer.

 

[Trooper]

But this is the most interesting part , for me.. A barrister who is one of my idols, ...

''Andrew Boe, who was involved in the 2004 Palm Island death in custody case of Cameron 'Mulrunji' Doomadgee, will represent several other parties involved.

NT Police, including the Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), Parumpurru Committee of Yuendumu Community and the NT Department of Health will each also be represented through the inquest.

"In a fair and balanced way, we will seek to better understand what happened on 9 November 2019, and why it happened, with the goals of determining the truth and making recommendations which may assist in preventing future deaths in similar circumstances," Ms Armitage said.

A further preliminary hearing will be held on May 20, with the coronial inquest itself scheduled to begin in Central Australia on September 5.''''

 

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe’s ex-fiancee told detectives he spoke of getting paid holiday if he shot someone, court documents show | Northern Territory | The Guardian

Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe spoke repeatedly about how he could take a paid holiday if he shot someone while on duty, his former fiancee told detectives, according to a transcript of a police interview and a statement released by the NT supreme court.

In the wide-ranging interview the woman also said Rolfe told her at different times that he was the first to get his gun out on jobs, and did not turn on his body-worn camera as he did not want people at the police station to see what he was doing.

In response to questions from the Guardian, Rolfe has strongly denied making any of the comments, and questioned why his former fiancee, who was also a police officer, did not mention them to her superiors or colleagues at the time.

Guardian Australia does not suggest that the matters raised in the interview and the statement had any bearing on Rolfe’s actions in respect of the death of Kumanjayi Walker or his acquittal by a jury in the subsequent criminal trial. However, as remarks alleged to have been made by a serving police officer, and included in documents put before the court, the Guardian considers there is a public interest in reporting the claims.

The woman, who Guardian Australia has chosen not to name, said she started her relationship with Rolfe in early 2018 when the pair both worked at Alice Springs police station. They became engaged within weeks, before Rolfe broke up with her later that year........

 

[Trooper]

From the same article.......

'
'''He also told her, she said, that he did not turn on his body-worn camera, because he did not want people at the station to see what he had been doing. Rolfe’s camera was on during the shooting of Walker, and throughout his time in Yuendumu, with portions of the footage played during his trial.

Rolfe’s former fiancee also told police that the “awful” and “terrible” culture at Alice Springs police station generally of “bitching” behind people’s backs was so bad that she ended up leaving the force.'''''

( I wonder about the situation at Alice Springs station, where Rolfe would have, by virtue of his employment , been somewhat in competition with full time employees, with holiday pay, sick pay, public holiday, etc.. all the things his team, the part timers called in to assist other full time police in out lying areas, instructed in all aspects of the outcome expected, no leeway for individual action were up against. To someone like Rolfe, that may have been a bit galling, and subject to him ignoring instructions on that basis....just my opinion )