Officer who shot Indigenous teen Kumanjayi Walker found to be racist

5 hours ago 4

Readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died.

A Northern Territory police officer who shot and killed teenager Kumanjayi Walker was racist and worked for an organisation with the hallmarks of the same attitude, a coronial inquest has found.

Coroner Elizabeth Armitage handed down her findings into the teenager’s death on Monday, almost six years after he was shot by Zachary Rolfe, and concluded that the police officer’s racist attitude could have contributed to the incident.

Former police officer Zachary Rolfe, pictured in 2024 arriving at the Kumanjayi Walker inquest.

She described the death as avoidable.

“This was a case of officer induced jeopardy – where officers needlessly put themselves in danger making themselves and others vulnerable and creating a situation that justifies the use of deadly force,” she said.

Walker died after being shot three times at close range by Rolfe during a botched arrest at a home in the Northern Territory community of Yuendumu in November 2019.

Wielding a pair of scissors, the 19-year-old was resisting being handcuffed by officers and, at one stage, stabbed the constable in the neck.

Kumanjayi Walker, 19, was shot dead by Constable Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the town of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory in 2019.

Armitage found there was evidence of systemic racism within the police force and was unable to rule out the attitude playing a part in Walker’s death.

“Having considered all the evidence, including Mr Rolfe’s explanations and justifications, I found that Mr Rolfe was racist and that he worked in, and was the beneficiary of, an organisation with hallmarks of institutional racism.

“I am satisfied that there is a significant risk that his racism, in combination with some of his other attitudes and values, affected his interactions with the community of Yuendumu on 9 November 2019, his entry into their houses and his perception of and response to the young Aboriginal man he shot and killed in a way that increased the likelihood of a fatal outcome.

“While it was not possible for me to say with certainty that Mr Rolfe’s racist attitudes were operative in his decisions on 9 November, or were a contributing cause of Kumanjayi’s death, I cannot exclude that possibility,” Armitage said.

In March 2022, a Northern Territory Supreme Court jury acquitted Rolfe, then aged 30, of murdering Walker.