Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe has been cleared of all charges over the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu.
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.
The jury found Constable Rolfe not guilty of murder as well as the two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.
Constable Rolfe, 30, showed no emotion as the verdict was announced in the NT Supreme Court.
Afterwards, he smiled and hugged his defence lawyer and family.
The jury returned following just under seven hours of deliberations.
Mr Walker was shot three times during a struggle with officers in a home in the community 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in November 2019.
The first shot, which came after Mr Walker stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of scissors, was not the subject of any charges.
Constable Rolfe's legal team argued he was acting in defence of himself and his partner and in line with his training and duties.
Constable Rolfe welcomes verdict, Yuendumu family weeps
Constable Rolfe addressed a media scrum outside the court shortly after the verdict was announced.
"Obviously I think that was the right decision to make," he said.
"But a lot of people are hurting today — Kumanjayi's family and his community ... and I'm going to leave this space for them."
Constable Rolfe's defence lawyer David Edwardson QC told the waiting media "there are no winners in this case."
"A young man died and that's tragic," he said.
"At the same time, Zachary Rolfe, in my view was wrongly charged in the first place.
"It was an appalling investigation and very much regretted."
Yuendumu elder Ned Hargraves said today was "another sad day" as family and community members wept on the steps of the court.
"I'll just say, when are we going to get justice? When?" he said.
"No guns, no guns in our own remote community. We don't want no guns. Enough is enough."
Family spokesperson Samara Fernandez-Brown, who was a cousin of Kumanjayi Walker, said supporters were unable to put their grief into words.
She said the community had respected the process of the trial and felt let down.
"Throughout this trial, Kumanjayi has been depicted solely as a dangerous individual, who in the words of [defence lawyers] was the author of his own misfortune," she said.
She said the family remembered Mr Walker as a young man "who loved animals, who loved his family, who loved his partner, his friends, his homelands, who loved music".
"He was a traditional young Aboriginal man who loved hunting and being out on Country. He was a joyful young man who was generous.
"A young man who was taken far too soon and a young man who has been deeply, deeply missed."
Verdict delivered after five weeks of evidence
The jury heard almost five weeks of evidence and testimony from more than 40 witnesses before retiring to deliberate at lunchtime on Thursday.
Constable Rolfe had pleaded not guilty to all charges laid over the shooting, which happened just after 7:20pm on Saturday, November 9, 2019.
Police body-worn camera footage played throughout the trial captured the struggle that started less than a minute after Constable Rolfe and his policing partner, Constable Adam Eberl, entered a home in Yuendumu and identified Kumanjayi Walker.
The 19-year-old was wanted by police because of an incident that took place three days prior, when he had confronted two local officers with an axe as they tried to arrest him for breaching a suspended sentence.
Prosecutors agreed the first shot was legally justifiable because it came after Constable Rolfe was stabbed in the shoulder with a pair of scissors and while Mr Walker was on his feet and struggling with Constable Eberl.
But they argued that Mr Walker had been effectively restrained on the ground by Constable Eberl when Constable Rolfe fired his second shot 2.6 seconds after the first and a third shot 0.5 seconds after the second.
The prosecution case was that Constable Rolfe did not have an honest belief that the second and third shots were necessary and therefore was not acting reasonably and in good faith in the performance of his duties.
Constable Rolfe said Mr Walker was not restrained and that he feared for his fellow officer's life when the second and third shots were fired.
He said police training held that officers should fire as many rounds as necessary to "incapacitate" a threat involving an edged weapon.
He rejected the prosecution's suggestion that he lied in his evidence about having seen Mr Walker stabbing Constable Eberl in order to justify his actions.
Mr Walker died around an hour after the shooting, in the Yuendumu police station, where he was given first aid because health clinic staff had been evacuated earlier that day.
Police commissioner defends decision to lay murder charge
Constable Rolfe, who was bailed after he was charged and suspended on full pay, faced the NT's mandatory minimum non-parole period of 20 years if found guilty of murder.
He did not take questions or respond to reporters asking if he would return to work as an officer with NT Police.
In his closing address, Mr Edwardson said the murder charge, which was laid four days after the shooting, came before a proper investigation was carried out.
He described the pursuit of the case by the NT Police executive as a disgrace.
In a statement, NT Police Association president Paul McCue said justice had prevailed.
He said the union had maintained there was not enough evidence to lay a charge of murder.
"Our members continue to have a lot of questions resulting from the arrest and charging of Constable Rolfe and we intend to make a further comprehensive statement regarding this matter in the coming days," Mr McCue said.
NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker held a press conference in Darwin on Friday afternoon but did not take questions.
He said the coronial inquest due later this year "will oblige us ... to not continue, as others have, to proffer opinion and views in the absence of fact".
"I look forward to our institutional response as part of the coronial inquest where the facts will come to the fore," he said.
"That will diminish a significant amount of the mistruths and the rhetoric that is out there that has had no basis of foundation."
Aboriginal legal services 'dismayed' at not guilty verdict
Outside court, Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said the shooting of Mr Walker raised issues that could not be explored during the trial.
"We anticipate that those issues and the evidence that could not be examined in this trial will be very carefully scrutinised at the [coronial] inquest," he said.
"And it is our view that the family of Kumanjayi Walker and the Warlpiri community and the Australian people deserve no less than that full scrutiny."
Mr Walker's death and the charge against Constable Rolfe made global headlines and sparked protests against Aboriginal deaths in custody around Australia.
Constable Rolfe was the first NT police officer to face trial over an Aboriginal death in custody since the 1991 royal commission.
In a statement the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services expressed dismay at the verdict.
"Over 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991. So many, like 19 year-old Kumanjayi Walker, were our young brothers," NATSILS executive officer Jamie McConnachie said.
"NATSILS stand in solidarity and deep respect with all families whose loved ones have died in custody in their calls for change, justice and accountability."
