An inquest for an Indigenous teenager fatally shot by an NT policeman has been told the RFDS refused to fly to his remote community before he died.

October 27, 2022

The Royal Flying Doctor Service refused to fly to an Indigenous community after a police officer shot and severely wounded a teenager, a Northern Territory inquest has been told.

Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died on the floor of the Yuendumu police station as the pilots allegedly bickered about the state of the runway in the remote community, northwest of Alice Springs.

An inquest into this death on November 9, 2019 has been told that immediately after the shooting Senior Sergeant Terry Zhang and other officers were ordered to fly with the RFDS to Yuendumu to back up police on the ground.

But when they got to the Alice Springs airport the pilots in charge of the RFDS plane refused to take off.

“I entered their hangar, the nurses were loading up the aircraft and I spoke to … the pilot,” Sen Sgt Zhang told the coroner on Thursday.

“It was a robust conversation and he said they were not prepared to leave Alice Springs unless we can provide them with an assurance that the runway is safe to land.”

The pilots were concerned the Indigenous community in Yuendumu may have “sabotaged the runway” making it unsafe to land.

“To give them some assurance … (we were) making phone calls back to the station (in the community) to see if someone could actually observe or see the runway physically,” Sen Sgt Zhang said.

The pilots and police also discussed flying to another community near Yuendumu to wait “until it was safe”.

“While that was occurring … 20 minutes or half an hour, I got a phone call that Kumanjayi had passed away, so there was no need for the RFDS to attend,” Sen Sgt Zhang said.

“I relayed that to the pilot.”

Sen Sgt Zhang and the other officers then walked to the NT Police Air Wing hangar to travel on another plane but the pilot was not available because he was training.

He eventually showed up and refuelled the plane, and the team made a delayed departure for Yuendumu without the RFDS.

Earlier, the commander of the elite tactical police unit sent to secure the community after the shooting, Sergeant Meacham King, criticised the actions of Constable Zachary Rolfe and his team before  he shot Mr Walker.

They had undertaken so-called intelligence gathering in preparation for an approved arrest early the following morning when the Warlpiri man was likely to be sleepy and easily detained.

They did this by visiting his relatives’ homes and asking where he was.

But Sgt King told the coroner Const Rolfe and his team weren’t intelligence gathering.

“They (were) actually searching and looking to apprehend Kumanjayi at that point in time,” the veteran policeman said.

“The idea of intelligence gathering is to understand the layout of a place to get intelligence on how you would effect the apprehension at 5am … But not actually attend the residence.”

Sgt King said “intelligence gathering would be to drive past (the house) to get an understanding of where the doors are and how to get through the gate”.

The inquest continues.