Defence lawyers in the murder trial of Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe have mapped out their case, telling the court the constable was following his training when he shot and killed an Indigenous teenager during an attempted arrest gone wrong.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Constable Rolfe, 30, is standing trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court over the death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in the remote central Australian community of Yuendumu in November 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder as well as to alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.
The court has heard Constable Rolfe was part of a police unit that had travelled from Alice Springs and entered a home in Yuendumu to arrest Mr Walker, when the teenager began to struggle against one of Constable Rolfe's colleagues.
In an opening address on the second day of the trial, defence barrister David Edwardson, QC, said Mr Walker then pulled out a pair of medical scissors and stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder, close to his neck.
He said Constable Rolfe shot the teenager three times, and the court was told Mr Walker was pronounced dead about an hour later.
"On the defence case, [Constable Rolfe] was taught, trained and drilled as a member of the Northern Territory police force that [an] edged weapon equals [a] gun," Mr Edwardson told jurors.
"In other words, where a police officer is confronted with an edged weapon, the appropriate response is to draw your weapon and be prepared to use it.
Mr Edwardson said his team would put forward three defences:
- that Constable Rolfe was acting in good faith
- that he was acting in the reasonable performance of his duties
- that he was acting in the defence of himself and his partner, Constable Adam Eberl.
"It is the defence position that Constable Rolfe, having been stabbed by a known violent offender, and having lawfully shot him once, was justified in continuing to defend his mate and fellow police officer who was just doing his job, as well as Constable Rolfe," Mr Edwardson said.
Whereas prosecutors yesterday argued that Constable Rolfe intended to kill or at least seriously harm Mr Walker in shooting him a second and third time, Mr Edwardson today told the court the officer had been trained to incapacitate people carrying edged weapons by shooting their mid regions.
Defence lawyers also detailed for the court Mr Walker's criminal history and said his "violent disposition" was evidenced by the stabbing and a previous incident where he brandished an axe during an attempted arrest days before the shooting.
Closing his address, Mr Edwardson told the court the trial was one where "intellect has to rule the heart" as witnesses were called over the next three-and-a-half weeks.
Detailed arrest plan disregarded: prosecutors
Earlier in the day, prosecutors used the final half of an opening address to lay out the version of events on the day of the shooting that they will seek to prove at trial.
Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland, SC, told jurors Constable Rolfe had disregarded a careful arrest plan, despite his knowledge of the axe incident days earlier.
The court heard Sergeant Julie Frost, then the officer-in-charge at Yuendumu, requested the assistance of the Alice Springs-based specialist unit, known as the Immediate Response Team (IRT), at about 1pm on Saturday, November 9.
As well as providing additional support and high-visibility policing in the community, part of the group's deployment to Yuendumu would involve arresting Mr Walker.
Prosecutors said Sergeant Frost had devised the plan to carry out the arrest early on Sunday morning — after a local funeral had finished, when Mr Walker would likely be asleep, and when a local officer could help identify him.
That plan was emailed to the IRT about 5pm on Saturday, after the team had begun to travel to Yuendumu, but Mr Strickland said a screenshot of part of the plan was later found on Constable Rolfe's phone.
The court was told the four-member IRT team and a member of the dog squad were briefed in Yuendumu about 7pm, and were told they could arrest Mr Walker if they encountered him while gathering information.
However, prosecutors said, the team chose to ignore the plan and, instead, set about locating and arresting Mr Walker a short time afterwards.
Mr Strickland said constables Rolfe and Eberl entered a residence, known as house 511, about 7:20pm, and the first of the three shots was fired about a minute later.
Evidence was heard from an Alice Springs-based officer early on Tuesday afternoon before the court adjourned, in line with COVID procedures.
The trial continues with further police witnesses tomorrow.
