The inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker has heard concerns from a senior Aboriginal officer about “rough” policing and racism in the Northern Territory police force.
Walker, 19, was shot three times by police officer Const Zachery Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the remote NT community of Yuendumu in November 2019. A jury in March found Rolfe not guilty of murder and two alternative charges after a six-week trial in the NT supreme court in Darwin.
A three-month inquest is examining the events surrounding the Warlpiri man’s death. The inquest is also expected to probe the deployment of the tactical police unit and policies and training around weapons and the use of force.
Derek Japangardi Williams, a senior Aboriginal community police officer, told the coronial inquest on Thursday that he had had issues with racism in the force and had concerns about the “rough” and “hands on” actions of some officers while they carried out duties in remote towns.
Williams, who is also Walker’s uncle, told the coroner that out-of-town officers from larger localities had little experience of policing in remote Indigenous communities.
“There’s been officers who’s been coming from Darwin or Alice Springs or Katherine or Tennant Creek – the major centres – and they take that hands on stuff to remote communities which, you know, lacks respect and responsibility within the police force,” he told the coroner.
“They just want to go grab hands on … for example if you’re going to arrest somebody in town for a warrant or something, sometimes police kick the doors down. But in remote communities we don’t do that. We just knock on the door and say who we are and people come out.”
He told the inquest aggressive policing tactics within remote communities, such Yuendumu, could lead to a breakdown in relations between the police and the local community.
“The trust will go away from the community … roughly grabbing someone, kicking doors down, or pinning them down on the hot bitumen, that is insensitive,” Williams told the coroner.
He told the inquest Walker had development issues, was hard of hearing and not aggressive. He said it would often take 20 to 45 minutes to explain to Walker what was happening during his previous interactions with police.
“He was a slow reactor to everything. I didn’t put the cuffs on him, I didn’t put him in the back in the cage,” Williams said.
“He sat in the front seat … there were no issues.”
He said the decision to send in Rolfe and other officers in the tactical Immediate Response Team to arrest Walker in November 2019 was unnecessary as he was “low risk” and had never been violent during his previous arrests.
“There should have been no rush. He wasn’t a murderer … he wasn’t a serious risk,” Williams told the court.
Williams said the Yuendumu community was still struggling to understand the events leading up to Walker’s death.
“I felt frightened. I was frightened of my safety and my people because of what happened that night. I felt really sad and angry because I lost my nephew,” he told the coroner.
Williams told the inquest he felt “hurt” that his police colleagues did not tell him Walker had died until the next morning.
“I felt betrayed from my colleagues and the police force,” he told the court.
“And at that time, I wanted to quit. But I stood strong for my community and for my people there.”
The community police officer called for a standalone remote policing station in Yuendumu to boost local decision-making, cultural competency and improve policing in remote Indigenous communities.
“We want them out there to understand the culture and how we work in remote communities,” Williams told the inquest.
