A murder-accused policeman who fatally shot an Aboriginal teen during an outback arrest attempt has started giving evidence at his trial.

March 3, 2022

Northern Territory policeman accused of murdering an Aboriginal teenager during an outback arrest attempt has been called to give evidence at his trial.

Constable Zachary Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Kumanjayi Walker, 19, after the teen stabbed him with a pair of scissors on November 9, 2019.

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

The teen died after the second fatal shot ripped through his spleen, lung, liver and a kidney. He died about an hour later.

The Crown has conceded the first shot, which was fired while Mr Walker was standing and wrestling with Sergeant Adam Eberl, was justified.

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

The Supreme Court in Darwin has heard 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 during a scuffle as he and Sgt Eberl attempted to handcuff the teen.

Prosecutor Philip Strickland SC 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.

The teen became an arrest target after breaching a court order by removing an electronic monitoring bracelet and fleeing an alcohol rehabilitation clinic in Alice Springs to attend an uncle’s funeral.

The court has also heard Yuendumu community leaders had given an undertaking to bring Mr Walker to police after the funeral on November 9.

The trial continues on Wednesday.