Constable Zachary Rolfe and Kumanjayi Walker "never should have met" and the reason they did was a "tragic failure of leadership", the Northern Territory coroner has heard.
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.
Former Australian Federal Police (AFP) assistant commissioner Ben McDevitt told the coronial inquest into the police shooting death of Mr Walker there was a "significant lack of executive oversight" when Constable Zachary Rolfe was deployed to the remote community of Yuendumu to arrest Mr Walker in 2019.
"It was just totally lacking," he said.
"The members of the [Immediate Response Team] themselves didn't know who was in charge, and when you go higher it doesn't seem that people knew who was in charge at an executive level, who was keeping an eye on this."
Mr McDevitt, who was also called as the defence's expert witness at the murder trial of Constable Rolfe last year, began his inquest evidence by offering condolences to Mr Walker's family and telling the court his evidence was aimed at "contributing to institutional reform".
Constable Rolfe was acquitted of all charges at trial.
Mr Walker died in November 2019 after he was shot three times by Constable Rolfe during an attempted arrest.
The coroner heard the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man stabbed the officer in the shoulder with a pair of scissors, after days earlier threatening other police with an axe.
Mr McDevitt told the inquest the so-called "axe incident" should have triggered consideration of the tactical policing unit, the Territory Response Group (TRG), being deployed.
"At the very least, I believe if that were considered, you would have seen a risk assessment prepared and you would have seen a lot more consideration go into the planning of the operation, which would have seen a much safer result for everybody involved," Mr McDevitt said.
Mr McDevitt told the inquest it would not have been possible to know what resources were required to arrest Mr Walker without a risk assessment.
Ultimately, the Alice Springs-based Immediate Response Team (IRT) – a smaller, part-time, tactical unit – was deployed, along with a police dog handler, to assist Yuendumu police with the arrest of Mr Walker.
Mr McDevitt told the inquest the IRT, which included Constable Rolfe, made "tactical errors" such as approaching Mr Walker in order to identify him, and agreed local community police officers should have been used.
"But [the IRT's] guidance should be strict and it should be absolutely crystal clear what the command and control arrangements are," Mr McDevitt said.
"It might have been that four men and a dog just doesn't cut it."
Under cross-examination by the barrister for the Parumpurru Committee, Conor O'Bryan, Mr McDevitt stood by his opinion that additional resources might have been necessary.
"We're talking about a 19-year-old, cognitively impaired, Aboriginal man in a remote community attending his grandfather's funeral," Mr O'Bryan said.
"[The officers] were looking for a person who has committed a serious assault on two officers three days prior," Mr McDevitt said.
Inquest hears allegations Constable Rolfe was 'revelling in violence'
Emeritus professor of criminology Jude McCulloch was earlier called to give evidence about the militarisation of police forces, telling the coroner paramilitary groups such as the TRG and IRT created the risk of police officers developing a "warrior mentality".
"What I mean by the term militarisation is the integration of military philosophy and military-style operations into policing," Professor McCulloch said.
"The risk is that police develop a warrior mindset, whereby they seek to overcome, or treat as the enemy, those people that they're meant to protect and serve."
Professor McCulloch was read a previously unseen text message sent by Constable Rolfe to an unnamed person, which she told the inquest reflected a "cowboy aspect".
"dude I got in the most wild pursuit the other night I was chasing this 40 year old white ice dealer for like 3 days cos he took a machete to some woman. Then saw him driving round town it was like bad boys, we were driving wrong side of the road through red lights at like 130k/h haha was sick, then he tried to run and bashed him"
Professor McCulloch shared her opinion that the message reflected an attitude of someone "engaging in the action-oriented aspects of policing" and "revelling in violence".
"There's no indication of minimum force … only force being used in a punitive way," Professor McCulloch told the inquest.
"It's not the mindset of a police officer dedicated to using minimum force."
Professor warns of military-style policing
Professor McCulloch also told the inquest paramilitary policing units were "necessary" to police forces across Australia, particularly in counterterrorism, but warned of the risk of military-style policing seeping into general duties.
"Police forces need to be vigilant against that," Professor McCulloch said.
"Because when you have a highly trained group, there's a lot of resources going into train a group, they're considered elite, they have all these skills and weapons … there's a tendency to want to use them."
She told the inquest groups such as the TRG and IRT should be full time in order to keep highly trained officers out of general duties.
The inquest continues.
