WARNING: This story contains an image of an Aboriginal person who has died.
The former police officer who fatally shot an Indigenous teenager in a remote community was racist, a coroner has found, and those attitudes were reflective of an institution which tolerated racism.
Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times at close range by then-constable Zachary Rolfe at a home in Yuendumu, 300km north-west of Alice Springs, in November 2019.
Today, coroner Elisabeth Armitage handed down her findings following a years-long inquest into Walker’s death.
In handing down her findings, which spanned 600 pages, the coroner said she could not exclude the possibility that Rolfe’s racist attitudes were a contributing cause of the 19-year-old’s death.
“That I cannot exclude that possibility is a tragedy for Kumanjayi’s family and community, who will always believe that racism played an integral part in his death, and is a taint that may stain the NT Police,” she said.
Judge Armitage said Walker’s death was avoidable and a case of “officer-induced jeopardy”, a circumstance where an officer “needlessly put themselves in danger, making themselves and others vulnerable and creating a situation that justifies the use of deadly force”.
But Rolfe was not just “a bad apple”, Judge Armitage said, he benefited from working in an organisation with “the hallmarks of institutionalised racism”.
“His racist messages were not mere aberrations — they were, at least in part, reflective of a work culture that tolerated racism,” she said, referring to texts sent between Rolfe and colleagues in the police force, littered with racist language.
The failure of the Northern Territory Police to properly supervise or “rein in” Rolfe’s behaviour, including an attraction to adrenaline, a lack of discipline and contempt for authority and women emboldened his approach, the coroner said.
The community is still grieving, with Walker’s cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown saying his death has devastated the community.
“We miss him and feel his loss deeply every single day, it will stain our country for generations to come,” she said.
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