An NT policeman involved in an Indigenous teen’s shooting death refused to listen to a senior female officer’s orders before the incident, an inquest has heard.

October 19, 2022

A Northern Territory policeman involved in the shooting death of an Indigenous teenager was controlling and refused to listen to a senior female officer’s orders before the incident, an inquest has been told.

Kumanjayi Walker died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019.

An inquest into his death heard on Wednesday that Const Rolfe’s colleague, Constable James Kirstenfeldt, did not listen to Sergeant Julie Frost when she tried to brief the pair about arresting Mr Walker.

“It was a bit of a challenging conversation in terms of, they weren’t particularly listening,” Sgt Frost told investigators four days after Mr Walker was killed.

“The members really wanted to take over the conversation … Kirstenfeldt wanted to take over the conversation and control it. He wasn’t prepared to really listen to what I was saying.

“It was frustrating in terms of, I felt that he was trying, totally trying to take over the station at the point in time … He was just very intense.”

Asked by counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer if he agreed with Sgt Frost’s account, Const Kirstenfeldt said: “No, not at all”.

“If I was given a direction from a superior I would have followed it,” he said.

Sgt Frost ordered the men to carry out an arrest plan approved by Superintendent Jody Nobbs for Mr Walker to be taken into custody at 5am the following morning when he would be sleepy.

The men ignored the order or didn’t hear it and instead went out searching for Mr Walker immediately after they left the Yuendumu police station about 7.15pm.

They found him at this grandmother’s home six minutes later armed with a pair of scissors that he used to stab Const Rolfe in the shoulder as the officers tried to arrest him.

He died on the floor at the police station about an hour later.

The inquest continues on Thursday with more evidence from Const Kirstenfeldt.