A warning, this next story contains images of an Indigenous man who has died. A former police officer who fatally shot an Aboriginal man in a remote Northern Territory community five years ago has been accused of holding ‘overtly racist attitudes’ and lying to a court. The explosive allegations were made in the final days of a long-running coronial inquest into the shooting currently underway in Alice Springs.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Council assisting the coroner, Dr Peggy Dwyer, accused Zachary Rolfe of holding overtly racist
00:08attitudes, lying in the witness box and having a fascination with violence in the lead up
00:14to the 2019 shooting death of 19-year-old Walpola Richerman Kumunjai Walker.
00:19She argued in her final submissions that Mr Rolfe was a dangerous person to have on the
00:25front line of the Northern Territory Police Force.
00:28But while she levelled these allegations at Constable Rolfe, she also levelled allegations
00:34at the Northern Territory Police Force as a whole, telling the coroner that the police
00:38force failed in its duty to properly supervise and mentor young police officers.
00:44She cited text messages that were found on Zachary Rolfe's phone where the use of racial
00:50slurs, where racial slurs were used between himself and some of his superior officers.
00:57Dr Dwyer telling the coroner that those senior officers almost allowed Mr Rolfe to hold these
01:06attitudes and levelled these allegations at the police force as a whole for failing to
01:13mentor and guide young police officers like Mr Rolfe.
01:17Zachary Rolfe's lawyers, of course, were also afforded the opportunity to make their final
01:22submissions to the coroner, telling the coroner that these text messages were irrelevant to
01:28his decision to pull the trigger on the night that Kumunjai Walker was shot.
01:33They also rejected any suggestion that he lied in the witness box under oath and said
01:40that the coroner, in her findings and recommendations, needs to make sure that her findings and recommendations
01:47are relevant to her primary function, which is finding the cause of Kumunjai Walker's death.
01:56Kumunjai Walker, of course, died more than five years ago now. He was shot in November of 2019.
02:04We are, of course, now in November of 2024.
02:08And so his family have been waiting a really long time for this inquiry to finish, to get
02:15the answers that they say they are still waiting for.
02:18This inquest was supposed to finish in December of 2022, but it has been plagued by a series
02:25of delays. It is, of course, now due to finish today with the final submissions and arguments
02:32from some of the parties involved in the inquiry
02:35before the coroner adjourns to write her findings and recommendations.