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

[Trooper]

Murder-accused cop denies lying to jury (msn.com)


The court has heard that after Rolfe served in Afghanistan with the Australian Army he tried to join the elite Special Air Service Regiment and the NT police Tactical Response Group

He also applied to join the Australian Defence Force Commando unit and paid for a four to five-week private US military training course with Trojan Security International in Arkansas.

"In between the military and police I travelled to America for private training out of my own pocket," he said.

"I wanted to upskill myself and continue to improve myself so I could eventually join the police."

The Crown has conceded the first shot, fired while Mr Walker was standing and resisting arrest with Sgt Eberl, was justified.

But it says the second and third shots, which are the subject of the murder charge, went "too far".

 

[Trooper]

Mr Walker died about an hour after the second shot ripped through his spleen, lung, liver and a kidney.

The trial continues.

 

[Trooper]

I agree that the prior military background of Rolfe might come in to play with regard to training. Although on second & third thoughts, perhaps not.

The defence may stay along the lines of the police training side of things and then there is the issue of the offender still being armed after the first shot and still showing intent to injure/threaten the life of the arresting officers, in that case what is the policy for the police? What have they been trained to do in that circumstance?

Not a jury I would want to be on that's for sure.

Now that we get some picture of what Rolfe's military AND para military background consists of, ... it opens up a whole other realm of perspective to view Rolfe 's actions..

He is obviously hell bent on being some sort of police/military/enforcer / gun totin'/uniform wearing member of some group that is legitimately able to round up people with force.

The bit where he ' paid for a four to five-week private US military training course with Trojan Security International in Arkansas.

"In between the military and police I travelled to America for private training out of my own pocket," he said. This brings into play a whole other load of factors.

Gun for hire. Basically. That appears to be his career path.

 

[Trooper]

I didn't think to set up a page for trial documents, this post is a record of the body camera clips from

*Kirstenfeldt

*Hawking

*Eberl

*Rolfe.


Confronting footage shown at Constable Zachary Rolfe's murder trial paints a picture of panic in Yuendumu - ABC News


Second shot killed Kumanjayi Walker, murder trial hears | NITV (sbs.com.au)

Zachary Rolfe murder trial hears evidence from fellow officer involved in Kumanjayi Walker's fatal arrest - ABC News

Murder trial told Zachary Rolfe feared for his and fellow officer's life before fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker - ABC News

 

[Trooper]

I 've lived a fair while in industry, in public service , federal, state. municipal... and I think that Rolfe had black marks against him that prevented him from being offered positions with , just for starters, the Australian Army, which let him go, the SAS, which would not have a bar of him, ( I believe somewhere in there he , living in Canberra with his family, he tied to join the Au Federal Police ) , the Trojan Security forces, which has vacancies in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Dubai, Bahrain, Baku, all sorts of trouble spots, but they didn't want Rolfe.

Even, after he paid for his own training with them.

I know people who get head hunted for these jobs, who s training and living expenses are paid for whilst training, with jobs already signed up for, Rolfe was not cutting the mustard here.

I asked a few contractors with Kellogs, ( engineers all over the world ) and paying for training to them means he was a ring in, and certainly was not getting the top tier training, either..

 

[Hag]

Thanks for your comprehensive coverage of this case Trooper. Much appreciated.

 

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe denies making up parts of his story of the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker | Northern Territory | The Guardian


Rolfe earlier told the court that during a 10-month break between a stint in the army and applying to join the NT police he spent four to five weeks training in the US state of Arkansas with Trojan Securities International. He said he paid for the private training himself, which included hostage rescue, counter ambush driving, and weapons familiarisation courses, to “upskill” himself.

He was also asked multiple questions by Strickland about his training and the planning leading up to the shooting, which Strickland has previously described as important context to understanding the shooting itself.

Rolfe confirmed he had not made any action plan regarding the decision to search a Yuendumu property known as House 511 before he entered, and agreed that he had been trained about the need for such a plan.

He also agreed that he should have noticed Walker’s hand was in his pocket after he and Eberl entered the house. The court has heard that is where Walker is believed to have hidden the scissors.

Rolfe denied suggestions put to him by Strickland that he had become obsessed or fixated with an incident three days before the shooting when Walker threatened two Yuendumu police officers with an axe.

Strickland put to Rolfe that the reason he did not discuss any plan to arrest Walker with his colleagues was because he had already formed a clear plan in his mind to shoot Walker if he resisted arrest or presented a weapon to police.

“Incorrect,” Rolfe said.

Rolfe completed his evidence on Friday, but the defence plan to call a final witness when the trial resumes on Tuesday.


( I am intensely interested in the identity of this final witness... from my amateur count, everyone who was at that killing has testified...... )

 

[Trooper]

Aboriginal teen 'threat after three shots' (mcivortimes.com.au)

Law enforcement expert Ben McDevitt told the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Tuesday that Mr Walker remained dangerous after he was shot. ( this person is the final witness, I believe.. Rolfe's only witness testifying for the defence , and his testimony is not as an eyewitness but a witness at a remove, conclusions reached by viewing the body camera clips . )

"The struggle had gone to the ground but it was still an extremely active struggle," he said in response to questions from Rolfe's lawyer David Edwardson QC.

"Throughout that struggle Mr Walker remained armed with the edged weapon and it would appear, certainly by his statement after the third shot, that he intended on using it."

Rolfe's body-worn camera footage of the incident shows Mr Walker saying "I am going to kill you mob" as Rolfe and his partner Sergeant Adam Eberl, then a constable, handcuffed him after he had been shot three times.

Mr McDevitt also said the anger faced by Sgt Eberl increased after Rolfe fired his first shot into Mr Walker's back because he and the teen fell to the ground.

 

[Trooper]

Aboriginal teen 'threat after three shots' (mcivortimes.com.au)


"It is far more difficult in a ground struggle to be able to retain your own weapon, so not only was there the threat of the edged weapon but it's easier, in my view, to be able to take a weapon from somebody.

"There is a lot of latent power in that ground struggle, things can change incredibly quickly."

Mr McDevitt also said Sgt Eberl would no longer have been able to use his legs to run from or defend himself against Mr Walker.

He said his overall assessment was that Rolfe's actions, given the information the constable had at the time, had been in accordance with his police training.

But he conceded while questioned by prosecutor Philip Strickland SC that Rolfe and Sgt Eberl appeared to have gone into Mr Walker's home without a plan and they failed to adequately communicate with other officers positioned around the house when they found the teen.

 

[Trooper]

Aboriginal teen 'threat after three shots' (mcivortimes.com.au)


The Crown has conceded the first shot, fired while Mr Walker was standing and wrestling with Sgt Eberl, was justified.

But it says the second and third shots, which are the subject of the murder charge, went "too far".

Mr Walker died about an hour after the second shot ripped through his spleen, lung, liver and a kidney.

Defence lawyer David Edwardson QC called Rolfe as a witness last week.

The constable told the court that before he pulled the trigger the teen grabbed at his police-issued pistol.

He also said he saw the teen repeatedly stab Sgt Eberl and that he feared for his and his partner's lives during the incident.

The trial continues.


(( there has been no evidence of Eberl being stabbed, no abrasion on his skin, or ripped clothing, but Eberl's DNA was on the scissors )

 

[Trooper]

Aboriginal teen 'threat after three shots' (msn.com)

An Aboriginal teenager remained a threat after police shot him three times, an expert witness has told Constable Zachary Rolfe's murder trial......

( I find this claim a bit far fetched, particularly since the shots were fired so close to Mr Walkers' body, chest shot .. it does not ring right to me )

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

( the defence for Rolfe has rested it's case.. now the Prosecutor for the Northern Territory , the jurisdiction that is claiming that Rolfe did murder Mr Walker, by his second and third shot puts to the jury the summing up of all the evidence given by each witness, after which the defence barrister has his summing up to do. )


'''Constable Zachary Rolfe had the “state of mind” and “mentality” to arrest Kumanjayi Walker and shoot him if he resisted, and then lied about it to “justify the unjustifiable”, a prosecutor has told a Northern Territory jury.

The prosecution began closing its case against Rolfe on Tuesday, as his murder trial in the NT supreme court entered its fifth week. It came as a second juror was discharged, meaning both reserve jurors have now been engaged.

In his closing address, prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said that Rolfe’s career had demonstrated “an obvious desire to becoming involved in direct action”. That includes his five-year stint in the army, a five-month course with a private security company in the US, his application to join the Special Air Service Regiment, and his additional training with the NT police’s immediate response team, Strickland said.

Strickland said the jury should consider the context to Rolfe confronting Walker in a Yuendumu property known as House 511.

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

He said this included his “preoccupation” with an incident three days earlier, when Walker threatened two police officers with an axe at a separate Yuendumu property known as House 577, as well as his “keenness” to be deployed to Yuendumu, his “insistence” upon leaving the Yuendumu police station to immediately track down Walker, and the “manner” and “state of readiness” in which he searched House 577 minutes before the shooting.

“All of those matters, we say, are evidence of a particular state of mind,” Strickland said.

“They’re all evidence of a mentality the accused had at that time and that mentality was that if Kumanjayi Walker showed any resistance, if he presented with an edged weapon, he would be prepared to draw his weapon, and if necessary fire it at Kumanjayi Walker.”

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

Strickland said the jury should find that evidence Rolfe gave to the court last week – that he had seen Eberl being stabbed by Walker and feared for his partner’s life – were lies that he made up to “justify the unjustifiable”.

He also told the jury not to rely on other parts of Rolfe’s evidence. He said evidence Rolfe gave about asking for another local officer to accompany them on patrol in Yuendumu on the night of the shooting had not been corroborated by any other officer in the room.

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

'
Strickland said they should consider with some “scepticism” evidence Rolfe gave about only being shown one corner of a document referred to as the operational plan.

And he said the jury could “treat with a large grain of salt” Rolfe’s evidence that he had two chains of command on 7 November 2019, when he informed multiple officers about the axe incident in Yuendumu the previous day.

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

Earlier on Tuesday, a former senior police officer told the court it was “ludicrous” to suggest Rolfe should have used his hands to contain Walker.

Former police officer Ben McDevitt told the court that Rolfe had not acted inconsistently with his training in the shooting of Walker.

McDevitt, a former Australian federal police assistant commissioner who told the court he was a semi-retired consultant with a 38-year career in police and law enforcement agencies, was called as a witness in Rolfe’s defence.

He was the last witness in the trial.

David Edwardson QC, for Rolfe, asked McDevitt multiple questions about how his opinion of the shooting differed from that of Det Sr Sgt Andrew Barram, a senior NT police officer who appeared for the prosecution earlier in the trial.

Barram, who held senior positions in relation to the training of NT officers, previously told the court it was reasonable for Rolfe to fire the first shot, as it had occurred while Eberl and Walker were both on their feet and struggling.

But Barram said the final two shots were not reasonable, as the situation between Eberl and Walker had changed “substantially”

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

“They had gone from a standing position in a fairly equal fight, to being on the ground … and constable Eberl pinning Mr Walker down,” he said.

On Tuesday, McDevitt described Barram’s evidence as “just an extraordinary assertion”.

“It’s a ludicrous proposition,” he told the trial.

“It’s patently wrong. It goes against the very training … that apparently Sgt Barram has given to so many officers.

“In my view once the struggle went from a standing struggle to the ground it became a far more dangerous and dire situation for constable Eberl.”

McDevitt said that training included that an officer was permitted to use their firearm when an offender posed a threat to them or a colleague with an edged weapon.

 

[Trooper]

Police officer Zachary Rolfe had ‘state of mind’ to use gun if Kumanjayi Walker resisted, prosecutor tells jury | Northern Territory | The Guardian

Barram said in his evidence that, given the position of Eberl in relation to Walker at the time the second and third shots were fired, Rolfe should have used “open hand” tactics to assist in controlling him.

McDevitt said: “Again … it’s a ludicrous statement and it’s just not in accordance with the training or the use of force model. I just don’t understand it.”

He said the tactical options model on which Barram had based some of his opinions was “heavily influenced” by a model he had developed for the federal police.

But he agreed with Strickland that he had never trained NT police officers nor had any knowledge of policing in remote Aboriginal communities.



Zachary Rolfe denies making up parts of his story of the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker
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McDevitt disagreed with Strickland’s suggestion that Rolfe had acted against his training during the shooting, but agreed Rolfe and Eberl had not been “tactically perfect” when they decided to enter the Yuendumu property known as House 511, where the incident occurred.

He said having an agreed plan of action before entering House 511 would have been preferable.

 

[Trooper]

Judge John Burns discharged another jury member in the case. He had been informed that a family member of the juror had contracted Covid-19.

Burns said that although the juror had done the right thing and tested negative on multiple rapid antigen tests, the court could not accept the “even small risk” that they could infect other members of the jury.

It is the second time a jury member has been discharged in the case, and both reserve jurors have now been used.

Strickland’s closing address will continue on Wednesday.

 

[Trooper]

Murder-accused NT cop's 'made up' evidence | Northern Beaches Review | Manly, NSW

Rolfe says he shot the teen after he reached for his police pistol and stabbed his partner Sergeant Adam Eberl, then a constable, in the neck and chest.


But prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said on Wednesday that the testimony is a major problem for the constable.

He said police body worn camera footage of the incident does not support the claim and it was contradicted by Sgt Eberl, who told the jury he had trapped the teen's arm at the same time.



"The evidence that Kumanjayi's left hand is on the Glock (pistol) is a lie," Mr Strickland told the jury during his closing address to the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

He also highlighted how Rolfe did not alert Sgt Eberl to Mr Walker's hand being on his gun, which is considered a serious incident by police.

"He goes back to the police station and never tells (Sergeant Julie) Frost that Kumanjayi Walker went for his gun ... does not tell any other officers," Mr Strickland said.