An expert witness has told Constable Zachary Rolfe’s murder trial that the policeman’s second and third shots were not reasonable.

March 1, 2022

A murder-accused policeman’s fatal second shot into an Aboriginal teenager was not reasonable, an expert witness has told a Darwin jury.

Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Barram says the scissors Kumanjayi Walker, 19, was armed with were a “very low threat” with another police officer on top of him.

Constable Zachary Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Walker after the teen stabbed him in the shoulder with the scissors on November 9, 2019.

Rolfe fired three shots into Mr Walker as he resisted arrest in a room at his grandmother’s home in Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs.

The teen died after the second shot ripped through his spleen, lung, liver and a kidney.

Expert witness Det Sen Sgt Barram reviewed Rolfe’s body-worn camera video and says the constable’s second and third shots were not reasonable.

Rolfe fired them after Mr Walker had fallen to the ground with another officer, Sergeant Adam Eberl, who was then a constable, on top of him.

“Things had changed substantially from when the first shot was fired,” Det Sen Sgt Barram told the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“They had gone from standing in a fairly equal fight to being on ground with Constable Eberl on top.”

The former officer-in-charge of the NT Police operational safety section also said Rolfe’s first shot was justified “because he was confronted at close range with an edged weapon and actually stabbed with it in the shoulder”.

“It would have been reasonable to believe his partner was also in danger at that point.”

Det Sen Sgt Barram said Rolfe could have used “defensive tactics to help take control of Mr Walker on the ground” instead of firing shots two and three.

“As far the fight was concerned or arrest of Mr Walker, the firing of those two shots made no difference to the tactical situation,” he said.

“Mr Walker was being held down by Constable Eberl. The scissors were a very low threat at that time.”

Earlier, he said Rolfe and Sgt Eberl should have ordered Mr Walker to show his hands when the teen first came into view across a dark room.

“They should not have gone (into the house) if they suspected it was Mr Walker,” he said.

“He is clearly a high-risk offender with a propensity to previously arm himself.”

Rolfe and three other officers were sent to the remote Indigenous community to assist local officers with general policing duties.

They were also ordered to arrest Mr Walker at 5.30am on November 10 when he was likely to be sleeping and easily taken into custody.

Instead, they found the teen about 15 minutes after leaving the local police station where the officer-in-charge Sergeant Julie Frost has said she handed the men a printed page outlining the arrest plan.

Rolfe walked into a dark room and shot Mr Walker about a minute later. The second fatal shot ripped through the teen’s spleen, lung, liver and a kidney.

The Crown says Rolfe and his team were “intent” on finding Mr Walker after watching a video of him violently threatening two other policemen with an axe on November 6.

It has conceded the first shot, which was fired while Mr Walker was standing and wrestling with Sgt Eberl, was justified.

But it says the second and third shots, which are the subject of the murder charge, went “too far”.

The trial continues.