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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Lorena Allam

‘Racist and disgusting’: inquest into Kumanjayi Walker death hears of ‘shocking’ texts sent by Zachary Rolfe

Zachary Rolfe
In texts read at the inquest into the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker, Zachary Rolfe, pictured, said to a police officer he had a ‘licence to towel up the locals’. Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AP

An inquest into the police shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker has heard that Zachary Rolfe, the constable acquitted of his murder, was involved in text message exchanges in which officers described Aboriginal people as “losers”, “grubby fucks”, “coons” and “niggas”, and discussed using force to “towel them up”.

Walker, 19, was shot three times by Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu in November 2019. Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and two alternative charges after a six-week trial in the NT supreme court in Darwin earlier this year.

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