NOTGUILTY Australia - Kumanjayi Walker, 19, fatally shot by LE, Yuendumu, Nov 2019

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe is charged with Kumanjayi Walker's murder. Pre-trial begins today (msn.com)


This is the original , Brissy, I will put it all in here, as I have to log off soon..

For at least the next five weeks, the eyes of Australia will be on the Northern Territory Supreme Court, as one of the most closely watched cases in NT history begins.

Today is the first day of proceedings in the trial of Constable Zachary Rolfe, an NT police officer accused of murdering 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in the remote community of Yuendumu in November 2019.

But this week of proceedings will not be open to the public, as the court considers legal arguments around the admissibility of evidence.

This week, Acting Justice Dean Mildren will consider arguments from the defence and prosecution lawyers around what evidence can be presented to the jury and which potential expert witnesses will be called.

Several expert witnesses are expected to give evidence via video link from overseas when the trial itself begins, at this stage on July 26.

Justice Mildren has decided this week's proceedings will be held in a closed court.



That means the public will not be able to attend the court until the trial itself begins.

Potential COVID lockdown delays
A month-long trial has been scheduled, with jury selection likely to take up the first day of proceedings.

There are concerns the coronavirus outbreak in New South Wales – and subsequent border restrictions for NSW travellers in the NT – could cause delays.

In a pre-trial hearing earlier this month, the prosecution warned the trial may need to be pushed back, with key lawyers stuck in lockdown in Sydney.

Crown Prosecutor Phillip Strickland SC told the court, via video link, that the prosecutors had applied for exemptions and were waiting for a response from the NT government.

At the time Justice Mildren said it may be necessary to adjourn the trial for a week or more.

"We will just have to come to grips with that, I think, as events unfold," he said.

It is not the first time the trial has been pushed back.

In the middle of last year, hearings were adjourned for more than two months as prosecution lawyers worked to finalise an "extremely large" brief of evidence.

Plans to broadcast to Yuendumu
The trial was moved from Alice Springs to Darwin following an application from Constable Rolfe's defence lawyer late last year.

The Supreme Court had hoped to stream the proceedings into the Central Australian community of Yuendumu, so community members could follow the trial.

That will not be going ahead at the request of some community members in Yuendumu.

The trial will be streamed into a court in Alice Springs.

 

[Trooper]

This is me , here, not the report from the ABC.


Another thing.. there is some discussion going on, that the location of the trial may go back to the Alice..... held at the Alice and live streamed into Darwin, and Yuendumu... The prosecutor may have success with this appeal, as well.

 

[Trooper]

 

[brissygirl2019]

Thanks for that article Trooper, but I think that is a different article to the one I was keen to read. Don't worry, all good

 

[Trooper]

Dear Friends,

In the light of this week’s High Court decision in the trial of a Northern Territory Police Officer, the National Justice Project is calling for the NT laws that protect police and corrective services officers who harm ordinary citizens to be scrapped.

For example, strict time limits are imposed on individuals who are victimised or harmed by NT Police. The law only allows affected persons 2 months to commence litigation against the NT Police and 6 months to make a complaint about their conduct - read more about this law.

NT law goes further than those roadblocks and provides a blanket immunity – a get out of jail free card – to police who commit a crime in the exercise of their arrest power if they are acting in ‘good faith’.

That immunity was tested in the High Court when the court considered the right of the police officer to raise the immunity in defence of the murder charge against him that arose from the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker at Yuendemu.

While the National Justice Project is pleased that the High Court decided that the immunity did not apply to general policing duties, we are concerned that the court still left open the potential for the police officer to claim the immunity in relation to the arrest of Kumanjayai Walker.

The National Justice Project believes that the increasingly oppressive powers being granted to police around Australia – and especially in the NT - encourages bad behaviour and shields perpetrators from accountability.

First Nations peoples have been subjected to police harassment and discrimination since this land was colonized and the NT has a particularly poor relationship with its First Nations peoples who represent around 30% of its population.

Successive NT Governments have ignored calls for police to change their approach to policing and instead passed laws specifically designed to protect the ongoing police harassment of Aboriginal peoples the Northern Territory. The NT Government has even passed laws that effectively sanction police misconduct and criminal activity.

We will have to wait to see whether the family of Kumanjayi Walker ever see justice, but the system of government sanctioned protection for police and corrective services officers who harm individuals must stop.

(The observations above are directed to the legal system in the NT and the National Justice Project is not commenting on Constable Rolfe’s guilt or innocence or his conduct. His criminal trial for murder is still before the courts.)

Add your voice to the conversation by commenting on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.

In solidarity,

George Newhouse
CEO and Principal Solicitor
National Justice Project

 

[JLZ]

For example, strict time limits are imposed on individuals who are victimised or harmed by NT Police. The law only allows affected persons 2 months to commence litigation against the NT Police and 6 months to make a complaint about their conduct - read more about this law.

That is astonishing and just unreasonable.

 

[Trooper]

Space / Twitter

Murder-accused NT cop 'intended to kill' (msn.com)

Opening by the Prosecutor.


The top address is for a broadcast of the trial currrently underway in Darwin, and being broadcast into the Alice.. ( at the court house in Alice Springs) ...

 

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe trial: Kumanjayi Walker's death, Yuendumu's grief and the constable charged with murder - ABC News

There was a gunshot in the darkening desert night. Two more quickly followed.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.

Inside a red-walled house in the community of Yuendumu, the bullets had hit Kumanjayi Walker, a 19-year-old from Central Australia.

The shots were fired by Zachary Rolfe, then 28, a constable who had joined the Northern Territory Police Force about three years earlier.

It was not quite 7:30pm on Saturday, November 9, 2019: a night that left a young man dead, a community riven with grief and distrust and, four days later, a police officer charged with murder over an Aboriginal death in custody.

Continued in this article......... a good read.

Constable Rolfe and other officers had travelled the nearly 300 kilometres from Alice Springs to Yuendumu to arrest Mr Walker.

 

[Trooper]

Defence says Northern Territory police officer was following training when he fatally shot Indigenous teenager - ABC News

The court has heard Constable Rolfe was part of a police unit that had travelled from Alice Springs and entered a home in Yuendumu to arrest Mr Walker, when the teenager began to struggle against one of Constable Rolfe's colleagues.

In an opening address on the second day of the trial, defence barrister David Edwardson, QC, said Mr Walker then pulled out a pair of medical scissors and stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder, close to his neck..........

 

[brissygirl2019]

Thanks for the media snippets Trooper

 

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe trial: police officer said ‘it’s all good – he was stabbing me’ moments after Indigenous man was shot, court hears | Northern Territory | The Guardian


........Rolfe walked across the room, placed his left hand on Eberl’s back, and pressed his right hand, holding his Glock semi-automatic handgun, against the left side of Walker’s body, Strickland said. Rolfe then pulled the trigger twice in quick succession, in what Strickland said on Monday was known as a “double-tap” designed to ensure maximum damage.

It is the second and third shots that are subject to the murder charge. If a jury finds Rolfe not guilty of murder, he faces a charge of manslaughter, and if he is found not guilty of that charge, a further charge of engaging in a violent act causing death. The police officer has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

( Day one..... God alone knows what will turn up next. ) ..

 

[Bohemian]

Thanks for bringing this case to light, Troops. I will be following with interest.

 

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe trial: photos reveal stab injury sustained by NT police officer before fatal shooting | Australian police and policing | The Guardian

A court has released images of the injuries sustained by a police officer only moments before he shot an Aboriginal man dead.


( In this article, there is a photo of this wound )

 

[Trooper]

Zachary Rolfe: NT police officer involved in fatal shooting had ‘extensive’ firearms experience, court hears | Northern Territory | The Guardian


( Some background of Rolfe's work experience.. ).....

 

[Trooper]

‘He might get shot’: Kumanjayi Walker threatened officers with axe three days before fatal police shooting, court hears (msn.com)

.....
After the officers found Walker in a bedroom and told him he would be arrested, he charged at them with a small axe or tomahawk, before dropping it on the front porch and fleeing, the court heard.

Hand agreed that after chasing Walker through a section of scrubland known as the men’s area, where Warlpiri men performed ceremonies, he returned to the house and spoke to Lottie Robertson, Rickisha’s grandmother.

He agreed with defence counsel David Edwardson QC that in a conversation with Robertson about what Walker had just done he told her: “next time he does that, he might get shot”.

But Hand told the court that immediately after that he said “in Alice Springs. Like, community policeman are different to town policeman”, which was meant as a reference to how police in remote Indigenous communities operated.


( my opinion only. ... that Rolfe's background should have disqualified him from police work in the NT, and especially in remote indigenous communities.. that he was obviously out of his depth and carrying over traits he had operated under while in Afghanistan. . Also... he was somewhat of a rather dicey soldier, in so far as he was reprimanded on a few occasions for OTT action, and that must have been very OTT, for it to have been bought to a senior's notice. ... again, my opinion only ) ...

 

[Trooper]

'But Hand told the court that immediately after that he said “in Alice Springs. Like, community policeman are different to town policeman”, which was meant as a reference to how police in remote Indigenous communities operated.

“It’s a different way of policing on Indigenous communities,” Hand said on Wednesday.

“We always like to be as non-violent as we can with arrests, because we have to live in those areas, in those communities, and we’re trying to build partnerships.

“Obviously if force needs to be used, we use it.”

Hand agreed with a suggestion by Edwardson that he considered the arrest to be relatively stock standard.

He told the court he knew Walker had a criminal history, but did not consider him to be dangerous, and did not check Walker’s file on the NT police case management system, nor formulate an arrest plan.

 

[Trooper]

Now we are getting to the pointy end of matters pertaining to Rolfe and Mr . Walker.

Video of fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker by NT police officer Zachary Rolfe shown at murder trial - ABC News

( please note -
WARNING: This article contains the body-worn footage of the shooting shown during the trial.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died.

The photograph of Kumanjayi Walker is used with permission of his family.)

Police body-worn camera footage of the shooting was shown at the beginning of Constable Rolfe's trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court this week, where a suppression order preventing publication of the footage has now been lifted.

 

[Trooper]

And to add to the trouble, there was problems with communication not just between Mr . Walker and the men sent to arrest him, but between the police officers themselves... a sort of territorial gender cranky confrontational pre - event .......

'The fourth day of the trial heard evidence from the officer-in-charge of the Yuendumu police station on the night of the shooting.

Sergeant Julie Frost told the court about her request for assistance from the Alice Springs-based Immediate Response Team (IRT), members of which — including Constable Rolfe — arrived in the community in the early evening on Saturday, November 9.

She said one of the officers asked her what they should do if they came across Mr Walker.

She told the court: "I said by all means lock him up."

Sergeant Frost also said she felt one of the first IRT officers to arrive, Constable James Kirstenfeldt, had not shown her respect.

"I found him to be very dominating," she said.

"It appeared he was trying to take over the conversation and would not listen to me."


( There is much that can be concluded from Sgt. Frost's testimony. A mood, an ambience, that travelled with those officers to Mr . Walkers place that perhaps was not conducive to running a smooth operation .)

 

[Trooper]

A bit more detail from this days trial...


Zachary Rolfe trial: Kumanjayi Walker shot dead by officer minutes after safe arrest plan briefing, court hears (msn.com)


I found this part of some testimony interesting.


'Kelly also gave evidence that it was a matter of “personal preference” whether officers decided to walk with their hands on their firearms during certain operations. Earlier this week, the prosecution showed footage of Rolfe raiding a property with his hand on his firearm, which had been unclipped – something they argue indicates he was more willing to use his firearm than is supported under his police training.

“Some officers will walk with their hand on their firearm. Some officers don’t,” Kelly said.

“But having your hand close to your firearm will allow for a faster draw if something presents itself.”

Under questioning from Sophie Callan SC for the prosecution, Kelly clarified it was not common for officers to leave retention devices on their holsters unclipped, in order to be able to remove their firearm more quickly – something the prosecution alleges Rolfe did while raiding other properties in Yuendumu.'

 

[Trooper]

(And this bit. which just does not ring true, to me. )


'Kelly said he met with Rolfe the night of the shooting after he had returned back to Alice Springs, but did not discuss the incident with him. He said three or four days later, he also went to Rolfe’s house where he was joined by colleagues including other officers who had been in Yuendumu on the night of the shooting: Eberl, Kirstenfeldt, and Snr Constable Anthony Hawkings.

He said “we were basically having a barbecue and a couple of beers as a welfare check on Constable Rolfe” but said he did not discuss the shooting and he did not hear anybody else discussing it.'

( This is a bridge to far to believe , for me. I do not believe for one nanosecond that a few blokes, all coppers, all having been at Yuendumu that night, gathering for a welfare check and a BBQ then did not discuss why they were gathering and what a welfare check was for. This defies logic. My opinion, only. )