When Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe was charged with murder after fatally shooting 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker during an attempt at arrest in the remote outback town of Yuendumu in late 2019, Otto Jungarrayi Sims, a senior traditional Warlpiri man,“It’ll change the course of history for black people. There is hope.”
The legal system has taken its course, and after five weeks of evidence from more than 40 witnesses before the Supreme Court in Darwin,Prosecutors argued that Constable Rolfe’s first shot was justified in self-defence, but that he did not have an honest belief that the second and third shots were necessary and therefore did not act reasonably. Constable Rolfe’s legal team argued he was acting in defence of himself and his partner and in line with his training and duties.
There is no reason to think that, on the facts presented, the verdict was misplaced. There is anger on both sides. Constable Rolfehe was “thrown under a bus” by police leadership and that the investigation had been rushed and inadequate.
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