A Northern Territory sergeant who described the Aboriginal victim of a police shooting as a “shit cunt” in a text message in which he also told a colleague how to “answer his critics” in relation to the shooting has denied it was an “angry racist message designed to protect a boy in blue”.
Sergeant Ian Nankivell gave evidence on Thursday at an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker, who was shot dead by Constable Zachary Rolfe at the remote community of Yuendumu in 2019. Rolfe was cleared of criminal charges including murder in relation to the shooting.
Nankivell, who was granted a certificate by coroner Elisabeth Armitage allowing him to give evidence which may “tend to criminate” him, said he sent the message to an officer who he thought was involved in the shooting the day after it occurred.
The message was sent to Constable Mitchell Hansen, who had not been in Yuendumu but was a member of the immediate response team which had been involved in the shooting. Hansen then forwarded the message to Rolfe.
Nankivell said in the message to Hansen that “the member has to answer his critics with IAMO plus P”, an mnemonic he goes on to explain refers to five considerations for police who used force against an offender: intent, ability, means, opportunity plus preclusion.
“I [=] intent, the shit cunt was telling him that he was going to stab the police,” Nankivell wrote at the beginning of the message.
“A, ability, you have the ability to do so, because he both said it and was a young fit male who … would have had size disparity.”
Nankivell told the court on Thursday: “They were horrible words to use. I apologise wholeheartedly for it, there’s no excuse.”
He said speaking that way was part of a culture he learned about how police dealt with fatal shootings. He became emotional when detailing a shooting he had been involved with while serving as an officer in Victoria in 1994.
Nankivell said that he hoped using such language would not mean Aboriginal people in the NT lost faith or confidence in police.
“I would hope not, your honour,” Nankivell said. “I made a horrible mistake, from which there’s no coming back from, as far as I’m concerned.”
But lawyers representing Aboriginal families and communities in the inquest questioned Nankivell’s evidence at the inquest and a statement he had previously provided to the coroner about the text message.
Julian McMahon SC, representing Yuendumu’s Parumpurru committee, said he planned to make a submission to the coroner at the conclusion of the inquest that Nankivell lied when he characterised the text as designed to protect Hansen’s mental health.
He said this characterisation was “nonsense”, and what the message revealed was a “tight, intelligent legal defence” that Nankivell thought he was providing to a witness in a fatal police shooting.
McMahon said it also revealed Nankivell’s attitude towards Aboriginal people and how to deal with allegations of brutality against Aboriginal people, and was “an angry racist message designed to protect a boy in blue”.
Nankivell said he was “far from a racist” and reiterated that its purpose was to provide mental health support to Hansen, who was about to start work at the same station as him.
The court has previously heard that after Hansen forwarded the message to Rolfe he responded “Awesome awesome awesome, thank you for that brother”.
Deputy commissioner Murray Smalpage, who has apologised during the inquest for Walker’s death and other aspects of the case but said he does not believe there is systemic racism in the force, is also continuing his fourth day of evidence on Thursday.
