Police officer Zachary Rolfe found not guilty of murder over shooting of Indigenous teenager
Amy Clements
A jury has found police officer Zachary Rolfe not guilty of murder over the fatal shooting of Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker, after a month-long trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.
After deliberating for just under seven hours, the 12 men and women returned their verdict this afternoon.
When the decision was handed down, the 30-year-old was calm, hugged his mother and smiled.
Mr Rolfe spoke exclusively to 9News after his acquittal, saying he was "really happy" with the result.
"There's a long way to go moving forward from this but really happy with the result, really happy for my family and my friends, for the police force and especially for my mum who can move forward now happy," he said.
When asked whether he would have done anything differently in the situation, Mr Rolfe said he followed his training.
"I think with the benefit of hindsight, you would always do something differently, or better, but with the information I had on that night I wouldn't have done anything differently."
"I did my job; I did what I was trained to do and sometimes the outcomes are tragic."
Mr Rolfe said he still wants to continue his work as a police officer, but at the moment his future is uncertain.
"I'm still a police officer, that's what I want to do that's who I want to be, whether that's realistic, we'll find out."
Mr Walker's family and senior Yuendumu elders said the verdict is a result of racism, asking for guns to be banned in remote Aboriginal communities.
"We don't want guns in remote communities, enough is enough," Yuendumu elder Ned Hargraves said in an emotional address outside court.
On November 9, 2019, Mr Rolfe and four fellow police officers were dispatched from Alice Springs to arrest Mr Walker.
At dusk, Mr Rolfe and his partner Adam Eberl found Mr Walker inside a dark house. When the 19-year-old produced a pair of scissors from his pocket, a struggle took place. Mr Rolfe was stabbed in his left shoulder, before he fired his Glock three times.
The Crown accepted the first shot was legally justified, because there was a reasonable possibility Mr Rolfe believed it was necessary to defend himself. However, when he fired a second shot 2.6 seconds after the first, and a third shot 0.5 seconds later, they argued the situation had changed because Mr Rolfe's partner had restrained Mr Walker on the ground.
Mr Rolfe's counsel David Edwardson QC said his client had no time to form any intent and that he instinctively responded to the threat of the scissors which Mr Walker deployed against both officers.
"If Kumanjayi Walker had stabbed either officer in the neck, to that depth, death would almost certainly have been inevitable," he said.
"He was acting in the reasonable performance of his duties and he was acting in self-defence."
Mr Edwardson also addressed Mr Walker's criminal record.
"Three days before 9 November 2019, he had deployed an axe (against two officers) in an extraordinarily dangerous and confronting manner, which of itself, would have justified him being shot on that occasion," he said.
"(Mr Walker) might be a young man, and for that reason, if nothing else, this case is tragic."
"But, nonetheless, he was dangerous. He was violent."
"And in many respects, he was the author of his own misfortune."
