The sergeant in charge of the Yuendumu police station at the time of Kumanjayi Walker’s death has told an inquest she would never have sent a specialist response unit to arrest the 19-year-old if she had known racist text messages between its members.
Walker was shot three times by Northern Territory police Const Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest by the immediate response team in Yuendumu in November 2019.
Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and two alternative charges after a six-week trial in the NT supreme court in Darwin earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Sgt Julie Frost told the inquest she would not have called members of the immediate response team (IRT) into the remote community if she had known they held racist or derogatory views.
Frost worked as a remote nurse in Indigenous communities before becoming a police officer. She told the coroner, Elizabeth Armitage, the station was experiencing severe staffing shortages and high levels of fatigue in late 2019, which is why she called the IRT to help apprehend Walker after he threatened two officers with an axe.
The inquest is scheduled to go for three months. Last week it heard Rolfe and other IRT officers had used racist and derogatory slurs in text messages to describe Aboriginal people.
Asked by the counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, whether she would have called in members of the IRT if she knew they held “racist and derogatory views about Aboriginal people”, Frost said: “No.”
“Would you have allowed those members of the community into Yuendumu and assist in arresting Kumanjayi?” Dwyer asked.
Frost replied, “No.”
Frost said she had never heard language like that during her time as a police officer and last week was the first time she heard about the contents of the text messages.
She said she was shocked by the messages and agreed that the language used was “racist and disgusting”.
Frost apologised to the Yuendumu community for not telling them Walker had died at the police station shortly after he was shot, but said the information was withheld for community safety.
“I totally understand and I really want to apologise to the community,” she said. “We had to make these decisions for the benefit and safety of both the community and the police.”
Frost said she was “very concerned” about a decision to withdraw all medical staff from the community in the hours before Walker’s arrest, saying there had been no consultation with police.
“I was very concerned that they were leaving and there wasn’t a lot of discussion with us about it,” she said. “It was just, this is what we’re going to be doing.”
She said there was an “expectation” the local police officers as well as clinic staff at nearby Yuelamu community, about an hour from Yuendumu, would be able to attend any urgent calls and provide medical assistance.
“I basically said: ‘We can’t do that. This is not something we’ve got the ability to do,’” she said.
Frost will continue giving evidence before the inquest on Friday.
