When Kumanjayi Walker’s relatives questioned police over their assault rifle they were told the Aboriginal teen should not have threatened officers with an axe.

February 25, 2022

As Northern Territory police armed with an assault rifle closed in on Kumanjayi Walker before fatally shooting him, they told a relative the Aboriginal teen should not have threatened officers with an axe.

Remote Sergeant Adam Eberl was referring to the so-called axe incident three days before Constable Zachary Rolfe fired three rounds into the 19-year-old in Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019.

Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the teen who resisted arrest and stabbed the constable in the shoulder with a pair of scissors before he pulled the trigger.

As he and Sgt Eberl, then a constable, approached Mr Walker’s grandmother’s home where they found the teen they spoke to one of his relatives, Elizabeth Snape.

She asked Sgt Eberl why another member of their team, Senior Constable Anthony Hawkings, was carrying an AR15 assault rifle.

“It is like he has got it aimed to shoot someone,” she said, while holding her crying two-year-old son.

“No, he is not aiming to shoot anyone. We do not have a holster for that one so he has to carry it,” Sgt Eberl replies.

He then says: “Someone probably should not run at police with an axe”.

Body-worn camera footage played to the Northern Territory Supreme Court then shows Sgt Eberl walking into the home where he and Rolfe confront the teen.

Mr Walker lies about his identity and the officers attempt to take him into custody before a scuffle breaks out and Rolfe fires three shots.

A time code on the video shows the first shot was fired two minutes and 10 seconds after Sgt Eberl spoke to Ms Snape.

The Crown has conceded the first shot, which was fired while Mr Walker was standing and resisting arrest, was justified.

But it says the second and third shots went “too far” because the teen was “effectively restrained” on the ground by Sgt Eberl when Rolfe fired.

Police body-worn camera of the axe incident on November 6 shows Mr Walker, who was cornered in a bedroom, violently threatening two other policemen attempting to arrest him.

He picks up and raises the axe, then runs at the officers before escaping into nearby bushland. Neither officer was injured but they were badly shaken.

Prosecutors have said Rolfe and three other officers sent to Yuendumu were “intent” on arresting Mr Walker after watching the footage.

The trial continues on Friday.