A police officer who was threatened with an axe by Kumanjayi Walker told the Warlpiri man’s family that if he did the same thing to another officer “he might get shot”, a court has heard.
The court has also heard that three days later, Walker used a pair of surgical scissors to stab constable Zachary Rolfe, who shot him dead.
Rolfe is on trial in the Northern Territory supreme court for the alleged murder of Walker. He has pleaded not guilty to that charge and two alternate charges, and is arguing his actions were reasonable and justifiable in the context of the danger faced by him and a colleague.
On Wednesday, the court heard from two police officers who had attempted to arrest Walker at the remote community of Yuendumu on 6 November 2019, several days before Walker’s death during the attempted arrest involving Rolfe.
Walker, 19, was wanted by police for removing an electronic monitoring device and escaping a residential alcohol treatment facility the previous month.
Senior constable first class Christopher Hand gave evidence that he and his colleague, Senior Constable Lanyon Smith, had not expected Walker to be armed when they attended a property known as House 577.
Walker’s partner Rickisha Robertson lived at the house with her family and Walker often stayed there, Hand said.
After the officers found Walker in a bedroom and told him he would be arrested, he charged at them with a small axe or tomahawk, before dropping it on the front porch and fleeing, the court heard.
Hand agreed that after chasing Walker through a section of scrubland known as the men’s area, where Warlpiri men performed ceremonies, he returned to the house and spoke to Lottie Robertson, Rickisha’s grandmother.
He agreed with defence counsel David Edwardson QC that in a conversation with Robertson about what Walker had just done he told her: “next time he does that, he might get shot”.
But Hand told the court that immediately after that he said “in Alice Springs. Like, community policeman are different to town policeman”, which was meant as a reference to how police in remote Indigenous communities operated.
“It’s a different way of policing on Indigenous communities,” Hand said on Wednesday.
“We always like to be as non-violent as we can with arrests, because we have to live in those areas, in those communities, and we’re trying to build partnerships.
“Obviously if force needs to be used, we use it.”
Hand agreed with a suggestion by Edwardson that he considered the arrest to be relatively stock standard.
He told the court he knew Walker had a criminal history, but did not consider him to be dangerous, and did not check Walker’s file on the NT police case management system, nor formulate an arrest plan.
Hand, who has been a police officer for more than 25 years and worked extensively in remote communities, said neither he or Smith shouted any verbal commands to Walker.
He said that training also included the phrase “edged weapon equals gun”, but there were a range of other factors that had to be considered before an officer drew their weapon, such as whether they were prepared to fire it, and the distance from the offender.
Hand agreed with a question put by Edwardson that he froze during the incident, that he was not proud of freezing, and that his first thought was, “shit, I’ve got to get out of here”.
Smith, the other officer present during the incident said in his evidence on Wednesday that he had worked for two years before the incident in Yuendumu, and believed he had a good working relationship with most of the 600-800 people who lived there.
He did not consider drawing his weapon during the incident because of a combination of factors, including that he and Walker knew each other and he had dealt with him before, and the presence of other people in the house.
But he agreed with Edwardson that immediately after the incident, when he and Hand were walking back towards the house after abandoning the chase for Walker, he told his partner he was stuck in the corner during the attack and “I just begged for mercy basically”.
Despite this, he said he never thought he would be harmed, partly because in his experience it was common for Warlpiri men to use a show of force as a demonstration to their families that they would protect them.
“Everything was processing extremely fast in a short period. I had adrenaline going through me, but I didn’t feel that he was going to hurt me.
“It was more of an intimidation to get out of the room … Kumanjayi, being a Warlpiri man, it was more of a show to his partner, who was in the room, and his family. But he just wanted to get away.”
Prosecutors told the court in opening submissions that Rofle became aware of the axe incident on 7 November 2019, and was logged on the NT police case management system as having accessed footage of it at least 15 times before his deployment to Yuendumu on 9 November 2019.
About 7.20pm that day, Rolfe shot Walker three times after attempting to arrest him at Walker’s grandmother’s house in Yuendumu, the court has heard.
Walker had been asked to put his hands behind his back by Rolfe. But instead Walker pulled a pair of medical scissors from his pocket and brought them down in a stabbing motion into Rolfe’s left shoulder.
Rolfe’s colleague, Constable Adam Eberl, struggled with Walker, who was shot soon after by Rolfe, the court heard. The first shot is not subject to any charges.
Prosecutor Philip Strickland SC told the Northern Territory supreme court on Tuesday that as Eberl and Walker struggled on a mattress on the floor, Eberl gained control of Walker. Strickland said Erbel was on top of Walker, whose right arm, which had been holding the scissors, was pinned under him. Edwardson said the defence disputes Erbel had control of Walker at the time.
Rolfe walked across the room, placed his left hand on Eberl’s back, and pressed his right hand, holding his Glock semi-automatic handgun, against the left side of Walker’s body, Strickland said. Rolfe then pulled the trigger twice in quick succession, in what Strickland said on Monday was known as a “double-tap” designed to ensure maximum damage.
It is the second and third shots that are subject to the murder charge.
Edwardson said Rolfe would defend his actions as being reasonable and justifiable in the context of the danger faced by him and Erbel. Edwardson said Rolfe was acting in self-defence, and to defend the life of Erbel, when he fired the second and third shots, and his training emphasised that “edged weapon equals gun”.
The trial before Justice John Burns continues.
