Horrific racist texts and "cultural payback": What we've learned from the Kumanjayi Walker inquest.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains names and descriptions of people who have died. 

On November 9, 2019, Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker was fatally shot by Constable Zachary Rolfe in Yuendumu, around 300km north-west of Alice Springs. 

19-year-old Walker died after being shot three times during the attempted arrest, and it's those subsequent second and third shots that saw Rolfe arrested for alleged murder.

The case was heavily scrutinised due to the disproportionate number of Aboriginal Australians who die while in police custody. There have been close to 500 fatalities recorded since a 1991 royal commission into preventing Indigenous deaths in custody. And as The Guardian reports First Nations people are six times more likely to die in custody than non-Indigenous people.

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The night in question.

Even though some reports suggest police came to Walker's house to resolve a dispute or because police had been called to deal with an emergency, community members stress police "were there to arrest this teenager for breaching parole".

The conviction in question was a suspended sentence for break and enter. 

During the trial, the jury were told that Walker planned to hand himself into police on November 10, with Warlpiri elder and Yuendumu community leader Eddie Robertson confirming the statement.

"I asked Kumanjayi if he can come to the police station and give himself in. He nodded his head and said: 'Yep'."

Robertson said he had spoken to the officer-in-charge at the Yuendumu police station, Sergeant Julie Frost, about Walker's plan. The pair had then agreed Walker would be taken into custody after his family member's funeral which was initially planned for November 8 but moved to November 9.

Police however escalated the order to arrest Walker, after he allegedly threatened two other policemen on November 6. Those officers had been trying to execute an arrest warrant, issued after the teenager had escaped from an alcohol rehab facility to attend the funeral.

So on November 9, when a group of Immediate Response Team officers arrived – allegedly with military-style assault weapons – in the remote Aboriginal community to arrest Walker, there are reports Walker lunged at Constable Zachary Rolfe with a pair of scissors.

Walker's grandmother told the court: "He said he was protecting himself from police."

It was then that Rolfe fired his gun once at Walker, and while Walker was lying on the ground after sustaining a bullet wound, Rolfe shot him two more times. 

Rolfe pleaded not guilty to murder and the alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death. He claims he was doing his job in "good faith" and defending himself and a colleague against "a violent criminal". In court and noted on NITV's The Point, it was revealed Rolfe had limited experience working in remote Indigenous communities. 

Walker was pronounced dead at 9:28pm. His family were not informed for more than 10 hours.

In 2022, Constable Rolfe was charged with murder but acquitted of all charges after a Supreme Court trial.

A three-month inquest is now underway in Alice Springs, exploring 54 issues related to the life of Walker and the actions of police before and after he was killed.

Here's everything we've learnt from the inquest so far.

Some of the Northern Territory police force feared "cultural payback" following the shooting.

A Yuendumu police sergeant described his fears of payback after the shooting of Indigenous teenager Walker, including concerns the police station may have been stormed.

Giving evidence at the inquest into the death of the teenager in 2019, Sen Constable Christopher Hand said he had fears of "a mob" potentially driving into the building and going after guns. He agreed such a response was not part of traditional payback but said police had to be mindful that some in the remote Northern Territory community may have wanted to take action. 

The coroner did hear evidence that rocks were being thrown onto the station roof, and were also thrown at an ambulance and a police vehicle. 

Sergeant Hand said decisions had to be made about what action would be taken "to protect the lives of the people that were outside the police station and were obviously upset and angry".

"If that (the building being stormed) were to happen it would have been a no-win situation for any individual on that night. Could we go from rocks to bricks and any other weapons? The fear was that it was going to escalate from just rock throwing to a bit more than that."

The coroner heard that in his experience, "when a certain level of force is used by police, that escalates the tension and anger in the community".

"Although I hadn't been involved in a police shooting on an Indigenous community, I have experienced times where, if the community don't like the way we're doing our job and particularly with an arrest, perhaps we have to wrestle with someone," he said. 

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Police officers defended carrying guns in the remote Indigenous community.

In other evidence, Sergeant Hand offered a vigorous defence of officers carrying guns in the remote community of Yuendumu, telling the inquiry he found suggestions they be disarmed "incredible".

While he understood and appreciated that some people in Yuendumu held the view that police should not carry arms, he believed they needed guns to protect themselves and other members of the public.

He said the guns also acted as a deterrent to potential offenders.

"Everyone has views about policing and how police do things," he said. "But for any community, whether it's an Indigenous community, or an urban community or a small town in country South Australia, to suggest that police shouldn't be armed with a side arm, I find that incredible."

Kumanjayi Walker was a known "runner" but not considered a "violent risk" by some officers. 

The inquest also heard from Sen Constable Lanyon Smith, who said he did not believe Walker was a risk to police or the community.

"I knew him as a known runner. He had previously run," Smith said. "I did not have concerns that he was going to go around the community chopping people up with the axe. I did not have concerns that he was going to do anything other than run."

Smith has worked in Yuendumu and several other remote communities, including Alice Springs, for over two decades.

Walker allegedly threatened Smith and fellow officer Sergeant Hand with an axe three days before he was killed. Smith told the inquest that, despite the incident, he did not believe Walker was a violent risk to anyone.

Concerns of normalised racism.

The junior counsel assisting the coroner spoke to Sergeant Smith about his experience working in remote Indigenous communities. 

The inquest was told "violence and domestic violence" were common in a number of the remote communities Smith worked in, and, under questioning, Smith said between 90 per cent and 95 per cent of his interactions with Aboriginal people were negative.

The junior counsel asked: "Do you think that there is a risk that if expressions of that kind of frustration go unchecked they normalise expressions of racism?"

Smith replied: "I could see they could, yes."

Officers said it was "upsetting" to think of Kumanjayi Walker's family not being promptly informed of his death.

Walker was pronounced dead at 9:28pm. His family were not informed for more than 10 hours.

In earlier evidence from Walker's family, including Aboriginal community police officer Derek Williams, the coroner heard that the family were not informed of his death until the following day.

One of the counsel members asked Sergeant Hand how he thought Walker's family felt knowing that "their son, nephew, grandson, brother had died in the police station, and they didn't even know?"

Sergeant Hand said it was "upsetting" to him and that he could understand "how hurt and upset the family [was]".

Disturbing texts were shown to the inquest.

During the inquest, Rolfe's text messages were read out, with Walker's family describing the content of the messages as "absolutely horrific" and, "disgusting and racist".

In the months before the shooting, the inquest heard that text messages were exchanged between Rolfe and other Northern Territory officers, detailing their interactions with the local Indigenous community.

In the texts, Rolfe used obscene racial slurs referring to Aboriginal people. 

Officers joked about having "laid into" a woman they thought may have been the victim of a domestic violence incident. The officers also joked about turning away body-worn cameras. 

In one text read to the court, Rolfe said he "liked" that he had "a licence to towel people up". 

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Another text read out at the inquest said: "I'm out at Borroloola, a random community on the coast, 'cause they're rioting. But we came up last time they did this and smashed the whole community. So, this time, as soon as we arrived, they started behaving."

Rolfe also texted: "Just don’t get why all this work has got me to the point where it’s my job to look after neanderthals who drink too much alcohol haha."

One counsel addressed the message sent to Rolfe from a fellow Constable shortly after Walker died. In the message a word that was "too offensive" to be read aloud was used to refer to Walker.

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage ruled the text messages should be examined by the inquest as potential evidence of racism playing a "conscious or unconscious" role in Walker's death.

Representing Northern Territory police Ian Freckleton AO KC told the coroner the messages were "repugnant" and "do not represent the values of the Northern Territory Police Force or of most members of that force".

In response to these texts, Sergeant Anne Jolley told the inquest the derogatory texts by Rolfe referring to Aboriginal people by offensive slurs were "racist and disgusting".

Jolley, who has spent 16 years in the NT police force, several of them as a community or "bush" police officer at Yuendumu, said she had never heard serving officers using racist slurs and she had never perceived "systemic racism" in the force.

Rolfe's barrister, David Edwardson KC, asked: "So the private, appalling messages that were read into the transcript are not, in your experience, a reflection of the way any police officer in your presence has behaved in all the years you've been in the force?"

Jolley: "No."

Reflecting on the racist content of the text messages, a Warlpiri Elder from the Yuendumu, Parrumpurru Committee said: "It's good these text messages have been made public for the first time. It really hurts all the family members, and community after what has been done to our people and to find out what some people are calling us."

Feature Image: Getty.