A senior Northern Territory police officer has stood by his decision not to tell the Yuendumu community that Kumanjayi Walker had died, despite numerous pleas for information from his family waiting outside the police station.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Superintendent Jody Nobbs was questioned at length about what he called a "calculated deception", which included using an ambulance's trip to an airstrip to give the impression the Warlpiri-Luritja man was receiving medical attention even though he had just died.
When asked by counsel for Mr Walker's family, Paula Morreau, why he told his officers not to engage directly with community elders or Mr Walker's family, Superintendent Nobbs told the coroner "it wasn't a safe alternative on the night", citing fears of "cultural payback".
Constable Zachary Rolfe shot Mr Walker at about 7:30pm that night and he died about an hour later, but Mr Walker's family was not informed until the following day.
Constable Rolfe has been found not guilty of all charges relating to his death.
Superintendent Nobbs told the coroner he believed the reason the police station wasn't breached by community members after the shooting was, in part, due to the "ruse".
"I maintain that reality was a product of two things … and that was the involvement of Derek Williams [an Aboriginal community police officer], and the other elders at the front of the police station," Superintendent Nobbs said.
"The second one was the deliberate and calculated deception, the so-called ruse, were the two factors that, in my mind, did not result in a catastrophic outcome."
Superintendent Nobbs told the coroner he feared "cultural payback" against police, detailing an example from another remote community in 2019, when "police had to be taken out of that community through threats to kill and the necessity to provide payback".
He conceded the decision to deceive the community did not "sit comfortably" with him, but he maintained his decision to do so was based on his "lived experience" as an officer working in remote communities.
Superintendent Nobbs rejected suggestions cultural payback was exclusive to Aboriginal communities.
"[Payback] is about the transgressor, it's not about the individual. I acknowledge there's an over-representation of the transgressor being another Indigenous person, but it's not limited to that," he said.
When asked why he did not trust senior Aboriginal Community Police Officer (ACPO) Derek Williams — who was outside the police station at the time and helping to quell community concerns — to help him broker a peaceful resolution, the coroner was told it was because of his "fear of his cultural obligations".
He said he relationship with Mr Williams had been damaged because of the deceit.
"I've got thick skin, If I make the wrong call, I'm happy to categorically sit here and say, 'that was the wrong decision at that point in time' … but not in relation to this," Superintendent Nobbs said.
Safety of Mr Walker's girlfriend part of decision
Superintendent Nobbs told the court he approved the arrest of Mr Walker over the weekend of 9 November, 2019, when a significant funeral was taking place in Yuendumu, in part due to safety concerns for Mr Walker's partner.
While an agreement between local police and Mr Walker's family had been made to allow the 19-year-old to attend the funeral, Superintendent Nobbs told the coroner he "drew a line in the sand" and sought Mr Walker's arrest after the ceremony because in his opinion, the relationship between Mr Walker and his partner was "the most challenging" he had dealt with in Yuendumu.
The coroner was told that Superintendent Nobbs regularly participated in a police-run information-sharing program designed to protect women experiencing domestic violence.
"What we generally have the benefit of, within the family safety framework, is having an appreciation as to a release date and then putting the mitigations in place to reduce the risk. Kumanjayi Walker's absconding didn't allow us to put the mitigations in place," Superintendent Nobbs said.
The court was told his girlfriend had never asked for court orders to protect her from Mr Walker, but police had previously sought three apprehended violence orders over their relationship.
He told the court he was aware of the cultural sensitivities around effecting an arrest during a funeral, but her safety was his "primary concern".
"I also had in the back of my mind constantly, it's quite possible I'd be sitting in this very court explaining why … [I] allowed a known, repeat domestic violence offender to be at large when [I] didn't have a safety plan in place for a known repeat domestic violence victim."
Mr Walker's girlfriend has not been called to give evidence in this inquest.
'Most challenging jurisdiction in Australia'
Superintendent Nobbs told the court he also drew on his understanding of the territory's crime rate that night, which the court was told is subject to the highest crime rates on a per capita basis in Australia.
"We have some of the most challenging, one of the most challenging operational environments, by far. Certainly in Australia," he said.
Superintendent Nobbs told the coroner the NT's manslaughter rates are four times the next highest jurisdiction, and its rate of incident involving injury is three and half times that of the next highest jurisdiction.
He said this knowledge, along with his knowledge of several riots that had resulted in loss of life, weighed on his mind the night that Mr Walker died.
Under questioning from Ms Morreau around the fairness of using individual crimes to judge an entire community and the way that this deviated from how white communities were policed, Superintendent Nobbs re-iterated that his experience in remote communities had informed his thinking.
