A Northern Territory police officer who shot an Indigenous teenager dead during a bungled arrest in a remote community told his team members they were on a mission to arrest the young man, an inquest has been told.
But senior police had actually ordered the four men sent from Alice Springs to patrol Yuendumu's streets after a series of break-ins caused its medical team to flee.
They didn't do it.
Instead, Constable Zachary Rolfe led the men to Kumanjayi Walker, 19, who he then shoot three times inside his grandmother's house on November 9, 2019.
The Warlpiri man died about an hour later on the floor of the local police station.
Constable Adam Eberl was wrestling with Mr Walker when Const Rolfe shot him.
He told an inquest into the death on Monday that a senior officer didn't provide a briefing before deployment, which was unusual.
The job was left up to Const Rolfe, who took it upon himself to show the men a video of Mr Walker using an axe three days earlier to threaten two other policemen to evade arrest.
Const Eberl assumed Const Rolfe had been appointed the team's leader and that the men's only task was to arrest Mr Walker based on the briefing.
He said he wasn't aware of any other role or work the team may have been tasked with or that Superintendent Jody Nobbs had approved an operation plan that ordered the men to patrol Yuendumu streets on November 9, not arrest Mr Walker.
Const Eberl said Const Rolfe also led discussions with Yuendumu's senior police officer, Sergeant Julie Frost, when the team arrived in the community.
He told the coroner he didn't ask to see any written orders, which would usually be provided, and Const Rolfe didn't mention it.
Const Eberl also wasn't told Superintendent Nobbs had ordered the team to assist local officers arrest Mr Walker at 5am the following morning, when he was likely to be sleepy and not resist being taken into custody.
He also didn't see an email with that information that was sent to him before the men arrived in Yuendumu.
Const Eberl agreed with counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer that when leaving Yuendumu's police station they were on a mission to arrest Mr Walker and that if he'd known about Superintendent Nobbs' orders he would have followed them.
The hearing continues.
