Northern Territory police feared being firebombed after an officer shot an Indigenous teenager dead in a remote community, an inquest has been told.
Kumanjayi Walker died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019.
Constable Anthony Hawkings was part of the team that went to the Warlpiri man's grandmother's house to take him into custody, an inquest into the death heard on Wednesday.
After the shooting, he told a commander in Alice Springs that the seven officers in Yuendumu police station could be seriously injured if they locked themselves in a cell for protection from community members.
They had gathered outside the police compound after the officers took the injured Mr Walker to the station for medical treatment amid fears for their safety at the house where he was shot.
"Yep, well, yeah, the, the worry is obviously firebombs," Const Hawkings told Superintendent Jody Nobbs during a phone call in which the senior officer told him they could not evacuate from the community.
"If we lock ourselves in the cell, so umm if they have bombs, firebombs and s***."
Asked if any Yuendumu community members had ever thrown firebombs on any previous occasion, Const Hawkings said: "No, I don't think anyone ever has to my knowledge".
He told the coroner he wasn't sure if his reference to firebombs during the call was because of a specific bomb threat or a general reference to a community member "throwing something which might set something alight".
"I think there was some mention throughout the night of the health clinic being, attempted to be set alight ... that information had come to me," he said.
"So I had that thought, in the back of my mind, obviously if we were told to lock ourselves into a cell as part of our stronghold.
"If we were locked into a cell, then there is the potential, if the station was, by all means, potentially set alight, then we could get seriously injured."
Const Hawkings was outside the house where Const Rolfe shot Mr Walker looking in when the incident happened, "brandishing" an AR15 assault rifle.
His body-worn camera recorded the deadly scene through an open door as Mr Walker wrestled with another officer on a mattress after Const Rolfe had fired his first shot.
Const Hawkings told the coroner he didn't enter the building to help because it looked like Const Rolfe and the other officer had control of the situation, and the assault rifle would have made it difficult for him to engage at close quarters.
He rejected the assertion that he carried the assault rifle to intimidate community members but accepted it could have occurred, saying he wanted to be ready "for anything that could transpire".
Mr Walker died on the police station floor about an hour after he was shot as the officers involved fought to save his life.
Amid safety fears, senior officers in Alice Springs ordered them not to tell the concerned Aboriginal community members who had gathered outside the compound.
The community remained relatively calm and believed their countryman was still alive long after he had died.
But as the night wore on, Const Hawkings and the other officers in the station became increasingly fearful as rocks rained down on the compound.
"The whole situation was a bad situation from a lot of angles. Very concerning," he said.
Supt Nobbs had ordered them to evacuate from Yuendumu over fears the station could be overrun but a senior officer reversed the decision.
The hearing continues.
