The second officer involved in the attempted arrest of Yuendumu man Kumanjayi Walker has told Zachary Rolfe's murder trial that the 19-year-old continued to struggle with police throughout the fatal shooting incident.
WARNING: This article contains body-worn footage of the shooting shown during the trial.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died.
The photograph of Kumanjayi Walker is used with permission of his family.
Mr Walker died about an hour after Constable Rolfe shot him three times during an attempted arrest inside a house in the remote community in November 2019.
Constable Rolfe has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge laid over the second and third shots fired, as well as two alternative charges.
Police vision of the incident, captured on the body-worn cameras of both Constable Rolfe and his partner, Sergeant Adam Eberl, was played in the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The court has heard the shots were fired after Mr Walker stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of medical scissors, after the officers moved in to place him under arrest.
A split-screen compilation of the vision played in court shows Mr Walker and Sergeant Eberl falling to the floor after the first shot is fired, with the officer lying partially on top of the 19-year-old, who is on his side.
About 2.6 seconds after the first shot, Constable Rolfe places his hand on Sergeant Eberl's back and fires a second shot into Mr Walker's left torso, followed by a third shot half a second later.
The court has previously heard that the prosecution and defence disagree on whether Mr Walker was restrained and no longer posing a risk to the officers when Constable Rolfe's second and third shots were fired.
Sergeant Eberl said he had been focused throughout the struggle on trying to "ground stabilise" Mr Walker, and to ensure he could not use his right hand, which held what he understood to be a sharp object.
"I believe he was trying to move the whole time … my main focus was on his arm," Sergeant Eberl told the court.
He told the court he did not know the object was a pair of scissors until after the shooting.
He also said he did not realise Constable Rolfe had fired any shots, assuming the "dull thud" he heard after the first shot was a beanbag round fired by another officer outside the house.
Under cross-examination by the defence, Sergeant Eberl told the court Mr Walker was not incapacitated, even after being shot three times.
Immediate Response Team designed for 'cordon and contain', court told
On Wednesday the jury also heard evidence from Sergeant Lee Bauwens, who told the court he had helped establish the NT Police Immediate Response Team (IRT).
The court has previously heard that four Alice Springs-based officers — including Constable Rolfe and Sergeant Eberl — were deployed as an IRT unit to Yuendumu on the day of the shooting.
Under questioning from the prosecution, Sergeant Bauwens said the IRT's primary role was to conduct operations known as "cordon and contain".
"It's cordoning a situation which has been declared a high-risk situation and they cordon and manage that situation until further resources arrive, namely [the Tactical Response Group]," he said.
He agreed the IRT was previously known as the "cordon and containment team" until 2017.
He told the court IRT members received extra tactical training in addition to the defensive training general duties officers were given.
The trial before Justice John Burns continues on Thursday.
