A military surgeon has told Constable Zachary Rolfe’s murder trial that Kumanjayi Walker may have survived being shot three times if it had happened in a city.

February 22, 2022

Kumanjayi Walker would have probably survived being shot three times by Constable Zachary Rolfe had it happened in a city, a court has been told.

The Aboriginal teenager was shot three times during a failed arrest attempt in remote community of Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019.

The 19-year-old died on the floor of the local police station 74 minutes after the second fatal shot “reached the end of its wound path”.

Prosecutors say Rolfe went “too far” when he fired the second and third shots because the teen was “effectively restrained” on the ground by another officer when he pulled the trigger.

The constable is fighting a murder charge, saying he was doing his job and defending himself from a violent offender who had stabbed him in the shoulder with a pair of scissors.

Expert witness Michael Reade told the Northern Territory Supreme Court that Mr Walker’s chances of survival would have been “extremely high” had he been shot nearer to a city hospital.

“I would be very surprised had he succumbed to those injuries. I estimated his chance of death would have been only around one per cent,” he said.

“But that is, of course, with almost immediate access to damage control surgery.”

Rolfe’s second bullet fired at 7.22pm ripped through the teen’s spleen, liver, left kidney and right lung as it tracked from one side of his body to the other.

“It had done such a degree of internal damage to the major organs and in particular the lung that it would have required, initially, advanced resuscitation techniques that (the police) were not capable of applying,” he said.

“Secondly, access to what we term damage control surgery. The closest available place was Alice Springs.

“That was too far away.”

An autopsy found Mr Walker died at 8.36pm from blood loss and breathing difficulties caused by a collapsed lung.

Dr Reade watched police body-worn camera footage of the efforts to save Mr Walker’s life and said the officers giving first aid did all they could.

“Alarmed” medical staff had fled the community of about 800 over safety concerns earlier in the day after their homes were broken into the night before.

Dr Reade said he was uncertain if the clinic’s nurses would have had all the necessary skills to have kept Mr Walker alive long enough for him to be moved to Alice Springs had they stayed.

The trial continues on Tuesday.