Yuendumu: The Trial

The Northern Territory Police Force’s own Defensive Tactics Training package has been used to defend Constable Zach Rolfe’s actions when he fatally shot Indigenous man Kumanjayi Walker.

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The senior NT cop who ultimately approved the IRT’s deployment to Yuendumu claims the team was not sent to arrest Kumanjayi Walker due to their specialist skillset, but simply because they could travel at short notice.

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Just minutes before Kumanjayi Walker was fatally shot, a family member had tried calling his girlfriend’s mobile phone to warn them that police were on their way, a court has heard.   

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The first Immediate Response Team member – and the officer who drove to Yuendumu with Constable Zach Rolfe the night he shot Kumanjayi Walker – has taken the stand at his colleague’s murder trial.

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The highly experienced cop who hand-picked Constable Zachary Rolfe to arrest Kumanjayi Walker says "my firearm would be out" and he would be "100 percent" prepared to pull the trigger if threatened with a knife. 

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The officer in charge at Yuendumu has faced a brutal cross examination about whether she withheld notes made about what happened the night police fatally shot indigenous man Kumanjayi Walker.

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A senior Northern Territory cop with almost two decades experience has told a court that if he had been sent to arrest Kumanjayi Walker he would have – based on the intelligence – been “prepared and ready to draw (his firearm) at a moment’s notice”.

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Confronting body-worn footage played in court has shown the terrifying moment a veteran bush cop begged Kumanjayi Walker for mercy when the 19-year-old threatened him with an axe just days before the teenager was shot dead by a different police officer. 

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The police phrase “knife equals gun” is set to “loom large” throughout the murder trial of Northern Territory police officer Zach Rolfe, a court has heard. 

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More than two years after a fatal police shooting in a remote outback community, The Queen v Zachary Rolfe is finally underway.

Follow The Australian's coverage of the trial here.

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