The coroner investigating the police shooting death of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker said she will consider whether racism may have played a role in the incident, rejecting arguments from police legal teams it is not sufficiently central to the investigation.
Walker, 19, was shot three times by Constable Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the remote Northern Territory community of 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.
A three-month inquest is examining the events surrounding the Warlpiri man’s death.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage made the ruling on Tuesday, after several days of legal argument addressing claims by lawyers for Rolfe and the NT Police that issues which had been agreed on as central to proceedings should no longer be considered relevant.
Those include whether systemic racism was a factor in the incident, and whether text messages taken from Rolfe’s phone could be tendered to the court as evidence.
Yesterday, counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer, told the court the text messages “reveal disturbing attitudes towards Aboriginal people” and were exchanged between police officers , including senior officers who “should have demonstrated leadership, supervision and advice”.
NT Police and Rolfe’s legal team argued the text messages were “open to varying contextual interpretations” and submitted that the text messages, even if racist, could not be said to “raise on the evidence” a line of inquiry regarding the death.
But the coroner, while making clear that it would be “unnecessary and inappropriate” for her to characterise the text messages one way or the other in today’s decision, said there may be a basis to argue Rolfe and other officers held racist views about Aboriginal people.
“I would not have investigated this matter if there were not an evidentiary basis to suggest that Constable Rolfe and other police officers with whom he was communicating held racist views about Aboriginal people,” she said.
“ I accept the submissions … that an available interpretation of the text messages is that they are prima facie evidence of racism by Constable Rolfe, and within the IRT [Immediate Response Team] and the Alice Springs Patrol Group.
“Ultimately, if the text messages are evidence of racism by Constable Rolfe, or a culture of racism within the IRT and/or Constable Rolfe’s Patrol Group, and if that racism did play a role – conscious or unconscious – in the immediate acts causing death, the relevant conduct of the IRT while in the community of Yuendumu, or in the decision making of those responsible for deploying the IRT, I am satisfied that this could amount to a relevant circumstance connected with the death,” she said.
Armitage was critical of the time it has taken the court to respond to the objections, saying they “could and should have been made months ago”.
“Over the last week or so, no less than 13 sets of written submissions have been drafted and filed and more than two sitting days have been required for legal argument and this decision,” Armitage said in her decision.
“All of that time – in court and out – should have been dedicated to the substantive progress of the inquest.”
Armitage said the delay has had “real consequences”.
“Witnesses take time off work and arrange childcare. The Northern Territory government and its agencies book scarce accommodation for them so that they can be accommodated in Alice Springs. Flights are booked. Interpreters are accommodated. Backfill is arranged. Remote health clinics and police stations sometimes staffed by only two clinicians or police officers – are now left in a position of real uncertainty,” she said.
“It is undesirable that the timing of the objections has caused such significant disruption to the early days of the inquest.”
The “issues list”, which was the source of the disagreement, was a document distributed by Dwyer, which Dwyer said had “no legal standing” and was compiled to help explain to the family and community of Kumanjayi Walker the likely areas of coronial inquiry.
The coroner said she would address any objections as they arise in the course of the inquest, saying it is impossible to know what they might be so early in the matter.
Rolfe’s lawyers had also expressed concern that if the court were to view the text messages obtained from his phone, it would undermine his acquittal, an argument the coroner said was “misconceived”.
“In my view, the evidence should be received. I consider that the phone was lawfully interrogated. But even if it was not, this would not prohibit me from receiving the evidence,” she said.
“If I am wrong, and Constable Rolfe’s mobile phone was unlawfully interrogated or disseminated, I am not persuaded that this would prohibit me from receiving the phone download.”
Yesterday Dwyer argued that the evidence would not be called to “demonise” those officers, but to “get to a level of understanding”.
“If your honour does find that they are relevant, we need to understand why those attitudes develop and what the implications of them are, and how they can be addressed.”
The inquest is expected to resume hearing from witnesses on Wednesday.
