Murder-accused policeman Zachary Rolfe has denied lying to the jury about the shooting that killed Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker.

March 4, 2022

A Northern Territory policeman on trial for murdering Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker has denied lying to the jury about the fatal shooting.

Constable Zachary Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Walker during a failed arrest attempt on November 9, 2019.

Rolfe fired three shots into the teen’s back and torso after he was stabbed with a pair of scissors in Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs.

The former soldier has told the Supreme Court in Darwin that before he pulled the trigger Mr Walker grabbed at his police-issued pistol.

He also said he saw the teen repeatedly stab Sergeant Adam Eberl and that he feared for his and his partner’s lives during the incident.

That testimony was questioned by prosecutor Philip Strickland SC on Friday.

“You have just made up the fact that Walker had his hand on your Glock, haven’t you?” he asked while pointing out the constable hadn’t alerted other officers to the incident after the shooting.

“Incorrect,” Rolfe replied during a terse and protracted exchange on his third and final day in the witness box.

Mr Strickland also grilled Rolfe about whether Mr Walker had actually attacked Sgt Eberl with the pair of scissors as he alleges.

“You have made up the evidence that you saw Walker stabbing Eberl in the chest and stabbing him in the neck, haven’t you?” he said.

“Incorrect,” Rolfe replied again.

The prosecutor also suggested Rolfe had never seen Mr Walker’s right hand holding a blade or his arm moving before he fired his second shot into the teen.

“Incorrect,” the constable said.

“You have made up that you believe that you feared for Eberl’s life when you fired those two shots?” Mr Strickland replied.

“I believe I needed to fire shots two and three to protect Eberl’s life,” Rolfe retorted.

“Is that a rehearsed answer?” Mr Strickland said.

The prosecutor also questioned Rolfe about his reaction after the shooting when he said to Sgt Eberl: “It’s all good. He was stabbing me. He was stabbing you”.

“You knew you had gone too far. You knew you had been too gung ho,” Mr Strickland said.

“And you knew, didn’t you, that the shooting had been captured on your own body-worn video and you felt you needed to justify what you had just done?”

“Incorrect,” Rolfe replied.

“How was the situation all good?” Mr Strickland asked.

“A violent offender had just been trying to murder two police officers, and he no longer was,” Rolfe said.

“It was a completely dynamic moving situation.”

Mr Strickland also queried Rolfe’s evidence that his statement to Sgt Eberl had been an attempt to explain what was happening.

The constable has told the court he believed his partner was suffering from tunnel vision and auditory exclusion immediately after the shooting.

“You say that you had the presence of mind to consider whether Eberl was suffering from symptoms of tunnel vision and auditory exclusion?” he said.

“Correct,” Rolfe replied.

“You’re making that up too, aren’t you?” Mr Strickland said.

Earlier, the constable also denied being obsessed with a video of Mr Walker in the lead-up to the shooting.

The court has heard Rolfe viewed body-worn camera footage repeatedly of a so-called “axe incident” involving Mr Walker on November 6.

It showed the teen violently threatening two officers in Yuendumu to evade arrest.

Neither officer was injured but Rolfe told the court Mr Walker was “lucky he did not get shot that day”.

Mr Strickland repeatedly asked Rolfe if he became fixated and obsessed with the footage and Mr Walker, which he denied.

But he did agree he had watched it multiple times over two days.

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

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

Mr Walker died about an hour after the second shot ripped through his spleen, lung, liver and a kidney.