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#AceDailyNews says Family of Kumanjayi Walker speak after NT Police officer Zachary Rolfe found not guilty of all charges according to ABC News Report:

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.

The family of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker, who died after being shot by NT police officer Zachary Rolfe in 2019, has spoken of their heartbreak after a jury today found him not guilty of all charges.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted of murder, as well two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.

Mr Walker’s family is now calling for a blanket ban on guns in remote Aboriginal communities.

Speaking outside court after the verdict was handed down, deputy chair of the Parumpurru Justice Committee Valerie Napaljarri Martin, said supporters were feeling “empty” and “devastated” by the jury’s unanimous decision.

“A beloved young fella has been taken away from us, I know nothing can bring him back,” she said.

“We are all so full of anger and grief.

“Our spirit may be broken, but we are the powerful vision-makers.”

Ms Martin said the court had not recognised the needs of Warlpiri people and that Australia was “divided by racism”: two key issues which needed to be changed.

She’s now urging the community to work together “towards the future of our next generation”.

“We demand an end to guns in our communities,” Ms Martin said.

“We have every right to speak and to say: this must stop. Do not silence us.”

Senior Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves echoed the call to ban guns.

“No guns, no guns in our own remote community. We don’t want no guns,” he said.

“Enough is enough.

“It’s got to stop. To our people, let us stand strong.

“Let us respect each other and we do not want to see another black young fella, or a girl, to be shot.”

Mr Walker’s cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, said she sometimes wondered how the Warlpiri teenager spent his final moments. 

“Was he scared? Terrified, I imagine,” she said. 

“Was he in pain? Excruciating pain, I would think. And he was alone.”

Ms Fernandez-Brown said the family “cannot put our grief into words”.

“His death has affected our community and our family in ways that we can’t describe,” she said.

“We are all in so much pain, particularly our young men.”

Ms Fernandez-Brown said throughout the trial, her cousin was “depicted solely as a dangerous individual” who was “picked apart” by people who didn’t know him.

“They saw only his flaws, and wish to put him on trial for his own death,” she said. 

“That is disgusting, and that’s the system we live in.”

Ms Fernandez-Brown said Mr Walker would be remembered by his family and those who loved him as  a “generous” and “joyful” man.

“We as a family and community will remember him as a young man who loved animals, who loved his family, who loved his partner, his friends, his homelands, who loved music,” she said.

“He was a traditional young Aboriginal man who loved hunting and being out on country.

“He was a joyful young man who was generous.

“A young man who was taken far too soon and a young man who has been deeply, deeply missed.”

Ms Fernandez-Brown said Mr Walker would be “proud” of his supporters, and this was “not the end of his story”.

“After some rest, we will turn our attention to the coronial inquest, where we hope our truth will finally be heard and so will questions that we have not had answers to, to ensure that this doesn’t happen to anybody else or any other family,” she said. 

“We are deeply disappointed and even though we were given a trial, I can’t with honesty say that it’s been fair.

“We will return home and will continue our healing process, but this not the last you will hear from Kumanjayi Walker’s family.”

Crown Prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said the shooting in Yuendumu, and Mr Walker’s death, “raised issues”, some of which could not be explored in the murder trial. 

“We fully respect the decision of the jury, as we must,” he said.

“We anticipate that those issues and the evidence that could not be examined in this trial will be very carefully scrutinised at the inquest.

“It is our view that the family of Kumanjayi Walker and the Warlpiri community and the Australian people deserve no less than that full scrutiny.”

In a statement, North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive officer Priscilla Atkins said “lessons must be learnt by police from this tragedy”.

“Aboriginal people must be safe in dealings with police,” she said. 

“Police need to change how they act in Aboriginal communities.

“Guns are not the way.”

NT police officer Zachary Rolfe has been found not guilty of all charges. Here’s what the jury had to consider

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.

After a month-long trial and more than two years since the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, NT police officer Zachary Rolfe has been found not guilty of murdering the 19-year-old Warlpiri man during an attempted arrest.

He has also been found not guilty of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death, meaning the officer has been cleared of all charges against him.

Throughout the trial, Constable Rolfe’s defence team argued that the officer was defending himself and his partner when the shots were fired in the remote community of Yuendumu on Saturday November 9, 2019.

Prosecutors said Constable Rolfe’s actions were not legally justified and went against his police training.

Here are the key facts put before the jury and the arguments made before they reached their verdict.

What did the jury hear about what happened in Yuendumu?

The broad circumstances surrounding the shooting were not in dispute during the trial.

Police body-worn camera vision played extensively to the jury captured the three shots fired by Constable Rolfe inside a home in the community 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

The court heard Constable Rolfe and fellow members of the Alice Springs-based Immediate Response Team (IRT) arrived in the community in the hour before the shooting happened.

Constable Rolfe and a fellow officer entered a home at 7.20pm looking for Mr Walker, who was wanted by police for threatening two Yuendumu-based officers with an axe three days earlier.

When Constable Rolfe and his partner, Constable Adam Eberl, identified the 19-year-old and went to place him under arrest, a struggle broke out.

Mr Walker stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of medical scissors and Constable Rolfe fired three shots — the second came 2.6 seconds after the first and the third was 0.5 seconds after the second.

The 19-year-old died around an hour later in the Yuendumu police station, where he was given first aid because the local health clinic was unstaffed that day.

What did prosecutors say in the case against Constable Rolfe?

The charges laid against Constable Rolfe related only to the second and third shots.

Prosecutors said the first shot came after Constable Rolfe had been stabbed and while Mr Walker was still on his feet and struggling with Constable Eberl. 

But they said the situation “changed dramatically” after that.

Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC argued that Mr Walker was “effectively restrained” on the ground by Constable Eberl when the second and third shots were fired.

He said those shots were not reasonable or necessary, including in the circumstances as perceived by Constable Rolfe, and that police training dictated that non-lethal force should have been used at that point.

During cross-examination Mr Strickland accused Constable Rolfe of lying in court about seeing Mr Walker stabbing Constable Eberl after the first shot was fired, in order to “justify” conduct he knew had “gone too far”.

The prosecutor said Constable Rolfe became preoccupied with the idea of arresting Kumanjayi Walker after watching body-worn camera footage of the axe incident, and went into the house ready to shoot if Mr Walker resisted arrest.

He also argued Constable Rolfe had ignored a “safer” plan by the local officer-in-charge at Yuendumu to arrest Mr Walker early the following morning and failed to follow his police training to minimise risks of confrontation.

The prosecution sought to prove that Constable Rolfe did not have an honest belief that he was acting in self-defence or in defence of his partner when the second and third shots were fired.

It said that also meant Constable Rolfe was not acting reasonably in good faith and in the performance of his duties as a police officer.

What did the defence team say in response?

The defence called Constable Rolfe as its main witness in answering the prosecution’s case.

Constable Rolfe told jurors he feared for his own life and then that of his partner’s when he fired the fatal shots and said Mr Walker had reached for his gun during the struggle.

He denied the prosecution’s suggestion that his evidence was made up to justify the shooting.

Constable Rolfe also said his actions were in line with his police training, which held that officers should draw and be prepared to use their firearm when confronted with an edged weapon.

Officers were trained to fire “until the threat is incapacitated”, he told the court, “no matter how many rounds that takes.”

Constable Rolfe said he believed the IRT’s mission in Yuendumu was to arrest Kumanjayi Walker and that he, and other members, were unaware of the local sergeant’s plan to arrest Mr Walker the following morning.

The court heard the local sergeant also told the officers to arrest Mr Walker if they came across him on Saturday night while gathering intelligence about his whereabouts. 

Constable Rolfe’s barrister David Edwardson QC said Constable Rolfe had no choice but to pull the trigger and acted courageously, in good faith and in the reasonable performance of his duties.

He told the jury that Mr Walker’s death was tragic but a consequence of his own behaviour.

The barrister closed his case with scathing criticism of the NT Police decision to charge Constable Rolfe four days after the shooting, saying it came before a proper investigation had taken place.

Editor’s Note: The initial headline contained an error and has been amended to reflect that the police officer had been found not guilty.

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