Yuendumu locals were in shock and angry after the fatal shooting of Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker in November 2019, the Northern Territory inquest into his death has been told.
Local man Bruno Wilson said he heard the shots in the remote Indigenous community, but did not know immediately that the 19-year-old had been injured.
Soon after he joined about 100 people outside the local police station and described the scene as "like a war zone".
"You couldn't hear anything. It was chaotic at that moment," he said in evidence on Monday.
Mr Wilson said even the next day he found it hard to process that the shooting had occurred.
"I still didn't get that it had happened. I felt really angry. But I just didn't get it," he said.
He told of his concern at seeing more heavily armed police in Yuendumu in the aftermath of the shooting, though he understood they were just doing their job and investigating the incident.
But he also criticised the initial decision to call in the Immediate Response Team to handle Mr Walker's arrest, which he described as disrespectful.
Mr Walker died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during the bungled arrest on November 9, 2019.
Const Rolfe was subsequently charged with murder but acquitted after a Supreme Court trial.
He has gone to the Supreme Court in a bid to block any requirement for him to give evidence at the inquest on the basis that it may expose him to disciplinary action.
But the inquiry has heard of a number of racist text messages found on his phone.
Mr Wilson said those text messages were "disgusting" but he indicated he wasn't particularly surprised.
"In the Northern Territory you bump into racists nearly daily if you are Aboriginal," he said.
The inquest was continuing.
