Deputy commissioner highly critical of botched arrest of Kumanjayi Walker, inquest hears

Constable Zachary Rolfe at the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker at the Alice Springs local court in November. Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AAP

The Northern Territory police’s second-highest serving officer has told an inquest he is “struggling to find a reason why” there was such a deviation from the “detailed” plan to arrest Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker on the day he was shot and killed by Constable Zachary Rolfe.

Walker, 19, was shot dead by Rolfe during a botched arrest in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu in 2019. Rolfe was cleared of all criminal charges in relation to the shooting.