The Rolfe case is a good example of how volatile situations can become in the Northern Territory. In 2019 in Yuendumu, 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, a disabled
Aboriginal repeat offender, was shot three times by Constable Zachary Rolfe while resisting arrest, and died shortly afterwards.
Walker had escaped from CAAPU16 to attend the funeral of a family member in Yuendumu. His ankle bracelet was found at the fence of CAAPU, and police were looking for him. Several came close, but Walker escaped into the bush. During another attempt to arrest
him, Walker wielded an axe. During his arrest on the day of his death in Yuendumu, Walker attacked Rolfe with a pair of scissors, causing a small puncture of the skin on Rolfe’s shoulder. Rolfe shot Walker once immediately after the puncture.
This shot was not in question before the court. It was the two shots in Walker’s back during a struggle with Rolfe’s colleague that caused the murder charge. They were fired while Walker was on the floor struggling with Constable Eberl, still holding the pair of scissors. Walker did not die at the scene but some time later at the police station.
Medical staff had left the community the previous day because of violence.
Two days later, based on his bodycam footage, Rolfe was charged with murder. In 2021, he was found not guilty
by an all-white jury. The case was heavily publicised and continues to divide the communities of Alice Springs and Yuendumu. Many answers to the question of why Rolfe
was so trigger-happy have been considered, including in an inquest by the coroner after the trial, but trauma was not one of them.
To an observer of Rolfe’s bodycam footage, it seems that both offender and arresting officer were equally highly escalated and therefore, de-escalation of the situation was not possible. Rolfe had watched footage of the previous attempt to arrest Walker a few days earlier, during which Walker yielded an axe, more than thirty times on the day before the shooting.
Walker’s family and the community of Yuendumu have asked for change. They want police without uniforms and guns in the community. They want Australia to see their pain. They had not been given a chance to say goodbye to Walker. They were led to believe that he was
transported to a hospital, while he died on the floor of the locked police station while his family and friends were waiting outside. They were not given any information while waiting there for many hours.
The coronial inquest that was held after the trial revealed text messages by Rolfe to colleagues and friends that showed significant racist sentiments.
An expert report filed at the inquest concluded that “the death of Kumanjayi Walker was the result of brutal, structural, racial violence perpetrated by the NT government through its police and health agents.”
What would have happened at the trial if these issues had been in evidence? What would have happened if the jury had not been all white? What would have happened if it had been shown that Rolfe himself suffered from the results of trauma, and that this had made him
trigger-happy? The coronial inquest did find that he was in treatment for mental health issues.
The Rolfe case is an excellent example of the feeble nature of blameworthiness and the volatility of situations that are so unique to the Northern Territory.
Photo: Katherine Times
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