Death of Kumanjayi Walker
Charles Arnold Walker (2000– 9 November 2019), for cultural reasons known as Kumanjayi Walker since his death, was a Warlpiri man who was shot and killed by police while resisting arrest in the remote Aboriginal Australian community of Yuendumu, Northern Territory in November 2019. The officer who fired the shots, Constable Zachary Rolfe, was charged with murder four days later, but was acquitted in March 2022. Thousands of people rallied in Alice Springs in the days following the arrest, and further protests followed in capital cities around Australia. After the acquittal of Rolfe a campaign entitled  Justice for Walker has continued. Charles Arnold Walker. Charles Arnold Walker was born in 2000 in Alice Springs to a Luritja woman. His mother drank heavily during the pregnancy, and his family believed he had fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. She gave the child up and Walker was raised by one of his mother's friends at the Warlpiri camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs. His home environment was marred by alcohol abuse and physical violence, and a constant struggle between various relatives for custody. He spent time in Adelaide and Katherine before moving to Yuendumu in 2010. Walker had  a history of breaking and entering, vandalism, theft and assault throughout his teens. He spent time in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. In 2015 Walker began a relationship with a 14-year-old girl in Yuendumu, who became a victim of his physical attacks. In November 2018, Walker faced court charged with two counts of assault. As a condition of his bail, he completed a rehabilitation program at the Central Australian Aboriginal Alcohol Programs Unit (CAAAPU) and returned to live at the Warlpiri camp in Alice Springs. Having complied with these conditions through to March 2019, he requested permission  to visit Yuendumu for a funeral, and this was granted by his Community Youth Justice Officer. However, on arrival at Yuendumu, he tampered with his electronic monitoring device. Two days later, he broke into the town store with an accomplice, destroying equipment and stealing up to $7,000 worth of cigarettes. Zachary Rolfe. Zachary Brian Rolfe was born in Canberra. In 2010 he enlisted in the Australian Army, serving in Afghanistan with the Townsville-based 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. After being discharged in 2015, he applied to a number of Australian police forces, and was accepted by the Northern  Territory force, enrolling at the academy in Darwin in May 2016. Rolfe graduated as dux of his squad and was posted to Alice Springs in Central Australia – his first preference. He joined the Alice Springs Immediate Response Team (IRT) in November 2017. Shooting. Suspended sentence and first arrest attempt. Walker was sentenced to 16 months' jail for the November 2018 break-in. However, the judge backdated and partly suspended the sentence so that Walker could attend a rehabilitation program at CAAAPU. Eight days after transferring from prison to CAAAPU, Walker cut off his monitoring device and absconded, heading back to  Yuendumu once again. Since Walker had violated the terms of his suspended sentence, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and his girlfriend was warned. Acting on a tip-off, two local police officers confronted Walker at a house in Yuendumu on 6 November. Walker lunged at the officers with a small axe or tomahawk; the police retreated and Walker ran off into the scrub, dropping the axe on the front porch. The two officers later said that they did not consider Walker to be a threat to their lives, seeing the use of the axe as "more of an  intimidation to get out of the room... a show to his partner... he just wanted to get away". Although Walker was a violent offender, the failed arrest was the first time he had threatened violence against police. The task of arresting him passed from officers based in Yuendumu to the Alice Springs-based Immediate Response Team. This team, which included Rolfe, arrived in the town on the evening of Saturday 9 November. The NT Supreme Court later heard that the IRT members were aware of the axe incident, and had viewed the body-worn camera footage from the failed arrest  attempt. Medical staff evacuated. On 6 November, unidentified offenders ransacked the home of the manager of Yuendumu's medical clinic. The following day, the windscreen of her car was smashed, and on Friday she and her husband drove to Alice Springs, away, to have it fixed. Later that day, someone tried to break into the house again, as well as the home of a colleague at the clinic. That night, the homes and vehicles of two other nurses and a midwife were attacked with shovels, pickaxes and other weapons. There had been similar incidents in the preceding months, and, fearing  for the nurses' safety, health department officials decided to evacuate all medical staff and their families on the morning of 9 November. Second arrest attempt and shooting. The shooting took place on the evening of 9 November 2019. Rolfe and his partner, Constable Adam Eberl, went to the house where Walker was staying and attempted to arrest him. A struggle ensued during which Walker produced a pair of surgical scissors and stabbed Rolfe in the shoulder. Rolfe fired a total of three shots at Walker. According to court documents, the assumed facts (comprising body-worn camera footage from Eberl and  Hawkings along with transcripts from the audio) include the following: Immediate aftermath. A seriously wounded Walker was then taken to Yuendumu police station and given first aid. The local health clinic was closed, and Walker died about an hour after the shooting. The Royal Flying Doctor Service could not fly to Yuendumu because it was impossible to guarantee that the crew would be safe from attack when they landed. Residents set fire to the clinic and threw rocks at nurses who arrived by road from Alice Springs, striking one in the head. Some members of the Aboriginal community have since  blamed Walker's death on the absence of medical staff at the clinic or the RFDS decision not to attend the incident. Subsequently, Yuendumu elders successfully demanded that the local clinic manager, who had been out of town at the time having her vandalised car repaired, not be allowed to return. Section::::"The Queen v. Rolfe". Decision to prosecute. Although an investigation into the incident was initiated, senior police sought to expedite charges against Rolfe. Rather than wait for detectives to gather evidence, Deputy Commissioner Michael White, Assistant Commissioner Nick Anticich and Crime Commander Martin Dole sent the body-worn camera  footage to prosecutors on 11 November – an unusual step so early in a case. On the basis of the footage alone, Director of Public Prosecutions Jack Karczewski determined that murder charges should be laid. Karczewski and senior police directed that charges be laid no later than the November, and took the unusual step of demanding investigators sign non-disclosure agreements about the case. The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Michael Gunner, flew to Yuendumu on 12 November and promised the community that "consequences [would] flow". Charges and plea. Rolfe was charged with: The charges related only to the Rolfe 's second and third shots, which were considered to have been fatal. In the Northern Territory, murder carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years' jail. Rolfe pleaded not guilty to all counts. Legal challenges. In the Northern Territory, police officers enjoy protection from civil and criminal liability in the performance of legally-defined functions under s. 148B of the "Police Administration Act 1978" (NT). The defence raised the question of whether shooting an offender in defence of a fellow officer – an act not specifically contemplated in the Act – was such a function. This question was considered by the full  bench of the Supreme Court and, ultimately, the High Court of Australia. Rolfe was represented in the High Court case by high-profile barrister Bret Walker. In a unanimous decision, the full bench of the High Court held that the protection from liability applied only to "those of the common law ... and the power of arrest". Murder trial. The court case was known as The Queen v. Rolfe. Rolfe remained free on bail during the trial. Given the significant publicity surrounding the case, Rolfe's defence team successfully sought to have the trial moved from Alice Springs to Darwin. The  murder trial, before Supreme Court Justice John Burns, took five weeks. To find Rolfe guilty of murder, the jury would have to consider that the prosecution had proved that the officer intended to cause the death of the deceased or cause him serious harm. The prosecution would also need to prove: The prosecution had hoped to use four previous complaints of excessive force by Rolfe during unrelated arrests as "tendency evidence"; however, Justice Burns agreed with the defence that these incidents were not relevant to the case, along with some text messages sent by Rolfe in which he suggested that  there were "no rules" in policing with the semi-tactical squad. The defence argued that, while the case was tragic, Walker had been responsible for his fate. Barrister David Edwardson SC criticised the NT police executive and three of the prosecution witnesses, and said that the trial was not about non-compliance with orders, but about "what Zachary Rolfe saw, heard, felt, and perceived when he made that critical decision". The jury deliberated for seven hours before reaching a unanimous not-guilty verdict on 11 March 2022. Following his acquittal, Rolfe told the waiting media that while he welcomed the  verdict, "a lot of people are hurting today — Kumanjayi's family and his community... and I'm going to leave this space for them". Report anticipating a reaction. Anticipating that members of the Yuendumu community would not receive closure in the event that Rolfe was acquitted, the NT Government prepared a secret report canvassing a whole-of-government response to any not-guilty verdict. This report predicted brain and nervous system damage in children, an increase in risk-taking behaviour, and attacks on police, health workers and local businesses. Media coverage. The shooting and trial were widely reported, both in  Australia and internationally. The national broadsheet "The Australian" provided extensive coverage of the case, including a podcast and documentary film, based on extensive interviews with Rolfe, police and members of the Aboriginal community in Yuendumu and Alice Springs. A series of articles about his life, which portrayed him as little more than an habitual criminal, and included a description of his final moments, were published in the paper after the acquittal of the officer charged with his murder. The newspaper revealed the extent of Walker's criminal offending following the verdict, including repeated instances of domestic violence. "The Australian" journalist  Rosemary Neill wrote that her newspaper had "long believed that only by honestly facing up to entrenched problems can solutions be found". The articles were described by several journalists, including from the ABC's Bridget Brennan, Network 10's Narelda Jacobs, and "The West Australian" political editor Lanai Scarr as unethical, insensitive, victim-blaming, irresponsible, and "a national disgrace". Media Diversity Australia's Madeline Hayman-Reber said that details of Walker's offending should have been suppressed because Walker's family had set "cultural protocols" to that effect at the start of the trial. Issues raised by the shooting and  the trial. Issues were raised in the community and by media both after the shooting as well as after the trial. While Aboriginal deaths in custody have long been a contentious issue in Australia, Walker's death was one which gained prominence during the global wave of protest over the death in custody of George Floyd in the United States in May 2020. Police use of firearms. Following the verdict, Yuendumu elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves called for police in remote communities to be disarmed. His call was supported by the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory and Aboriginal and  Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar. However, the Territory Government has ruled out this option, citing the risk to officers' safety. Reasons for prosecution. Rolfe was the first Northern Territory police officer to be charged for the shooting death an Aboriginal person since Robert Jongmin was shot dead by Senior Constable Robert Whittington in 2002. (Whittington was charged with "causing serious actual danger", but the prosecution was barred by a statute of limitations.) Some observers, such as Jamie McConnachie of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, saw the trial as an opportunity to provide redress for  deaths in custody more generally. Others noted that to see the trial in these terms was to ignore the facts of the case and deny the accused procedural fairness. When Rolfe was arrested the following day at the police barracks in Darwin, one of the investigating officers noted in her police diary that she was "not comfortable with arrest and rushed process without full assessment of evidence and ability to investigate objectively". The rushed prosecution was also criticised by the union representing police. Following suggestions of political interference in the decision to prosecute, the Territory's Independent Commissioner Against Corruption  confirmed that he was considering whether to launch an inquiry into the case. Gunner has denied being involved in the decision to prosecute, and has praised Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker as "an absolute straight shooter". Race of jurors. Jurors for the case were drawn at random from the electoral roll in the Darwin area. As the electoral roll does not contain racial data, the racial makeup of the jury is not known. However, Warlpiri elders observed that no jurors in the Rolfe trial were "noticeably" Aboriginal and suggested that this may have affected the outcome. Bail. Despite the fact Rolfe  was exonerated, critics have asked why he was not held on remand for the two years between his arrest and the verdict. Justice for Walker. A campaign under the slogan "Justice for Walker" (#justiceforwalker) was begun in the aftermath of the shooting, with protesters rallying in Alice Springs days after the shooting, and in the capital cities of Australia in 2019. The campaign continued after the acquittal of Rolfe, led by Walker's cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown. ICAC probe. On 2 April 2022 the NT Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC), Michael Riches, announced that he would be examining the few  days leading up to Rolfe's arrest to assess allegations of improper conduct relating to Rolfe's arrest and charge. He would then also decide on the value of a public inquiry to lay bare the matter. The allegations, made by the NT Police Association, the Country Liberal Party and Rolfe himself, suggest political interference by Chief Minister Michael Gunner or Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker. Gunner strongly denies the allegations and says he welcomes an inquiry. Coronial inquest. A coronial inquest into Walker's death is scheduled to be held in the Alice Springs Local Court on 5 September 2022 , preceded by a directions hearing on 29 March 2022 in Darwin Local Court. Crown Prosecutor Philip Strickland said that the trial had raised issues, and he expected that "evidence that could not be examined in this trial will be very carefully scrutinised at the inquest". It is anticipated that the inquest will reveal more details than the five-week trial was able to cover. The family of Walker, who feel that the trial was unfair, are hoping that the inquest will deliver justice for their relative's death, while the Northern Territory Police Association thinks that it will expose mismanagement , asserting that Rolfe was charged before investigations by senior officers had been completed.