July 8, 2025 • 23 mins
Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has handed down the long-awaited findings in the inquest into the killing of 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker, by then-police officer Zachary Rolfe. Armitage found that Rolfe was a racist, embedded in a racist culture at NT Police, and that Walker’s death was “avoidable”. In today’s podcast, we’ll explain Armitage’s findings about Rolfe and Walker’s lives, and her recommendations to the territory government and police.
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You can read the inquest’s findings in full here.
Hosts: Lucy Tassell and Emma Gillespie
Producer: Orla Maher
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This story contains distressing details, particularly for First Nations listeners.
If it raises any issues for you, First Nations listeners
can call thirteen yarn that's thirteen ninety two seventy six
and will put that number in the show notes as well.
Or you can join us again on the show tomorrow already.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And this is the Daily Art. This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
It's Wednesday, the ninth of July.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
The Northern Territory Coroner has handed down the long awaited
findings in the inquest into the killing of nineteen year
old Wolpury luricher Man Kumunjaii Walker.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
By then police officer Zachary Rolf.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The coroner has found that Rolf was a racist, embedded
in a racist culture at.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Northern Territory Police, and.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
That Walker's death was avoidable. In today this podcast, we'll
explain the coroner's findings about Rolf and Walker's lives and
her recommendations to the Territory government and police.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Lucy, it's hard to believe it's been six years since
the death of Kumenjai Walker. This story has really dominated
headlines or been kind of omnipresent in the news cycle
ever since. Yeah, for many reasons. There's been a court case,
there's been criminal investigations, and of course this inquest, which
(01:32):
reached a conclusion this week with the final report from
the coroner. All of that is to say, this has
been a really long time coming. So can you give
us a bit of a sense of the timeline of
the past six years to help us kind of understand
where this has all come from.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, so this really begins on the ninth of November
twenty nineteen. That's when Northern Territory Police officer Zachary Rolf
entered a home in the remote town of Yondermoux with.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
His colleague Adam Oberl. He was there to arrest.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Kumenjai Walker, who had left an alcohol rehab facility to
attend a family funeral. The arrest went wrong feels like
an understatement. It went very badly wrong. In a physical altercation,
Walker stabbed Rolf in the shoulder with a pair of
surgical scissors. While Eberl was trying to restrain Walker, Rolf
(02:21):
shot him several times. Walker was then taken to Yuendumu
police station where he died. Rolf was tried and found
not guilty of murdering Walker in March twenty twenty two.
To the concert of Walker's family, the jury had no
Aboriginal members. A coronial inquest, the one that we're talking
about today, began in September of that year. So September
(02:45):
twenty twenty two to the present is the time that
this inquest has been taking place.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Okay, So just to recap, in twenty nineteen two, Northern
Territory police officers arrest Kumenjai Walker. During that arrest there
is a physical altar case Qumin Diy Walker ends up
being shot several times by Zachary Rolf and he later
dies in police custody at the station in Yondermu. What
(03:11):
is a coronial in quest, Lucie? What does that all involve?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, I think it's important to specify that it's not
a trial. It's not carried out by a judge. It
can't make a finding of guilt or innocence. It's something
that can happen before or after a trial, and basically
it's held when someone dies in circumstances that are not
readily explainable or in very specific circumstances. So if a
(03:37):
you know, say, an eighty five year old was to
die in their sleep, that wouldn't be cause for a
coronial inquestka, But other forms of deaths are the subject
of these in the Northern Territory. They're held when a
person dies in quote unexpected, unnatural or violent circumstances, including
when a person was held in or immediately before death,
(04:00):
was held in care or custody.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
So you mentioned that a coronial inquest is not a
criminal court hearing, but we'll hear the coroner's court referred
to in these kinds of stories. But when not talking
about the kind of court we might think of.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, they can't find someone guilty of a crime or
sentence them to jail or anything like that. They can
only make findings about the person's death, and they can
also make recommendations to improve public health and safety as
a result of what they've found. So, for example, if
a house burns down, the coroner might investigate the causes
(04:35):
of the house burning down and make recommendations to prevent
further houses from burning down in similar ways.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Okay, that makes sense. So you mentioned that this inquest
began in September twenty twenty two, at that point, three
years after Cooman Jy Walker's death, and it's now been
another three years. It's been quite a long running in quest.
What did it involve? And bluntly, why did it take
so long?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of reasons, I think. I mean,
the main reason why it took so long is that
there was a lot to investigate and a lot to understand.
The inquest had many rounds of hearings. It heard from
a lot of different people. It heard from people in
Yon Demu on the day that Kamenjai Walker was shot
and then died.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
It heard from nt police.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So its rounds of hearings were September to November twenty
twenty two, then again in early twenty twenty three, and
then again another three sets of hearings in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Okay, so it hasn't been consistently running week in week
out for three years.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
No, in the same way that you might think of.
I know, yesterday we were talking about the trial of
Aaron Patterson, so that runs straight through for ten weeks.
This is different. This is as different kinds of people
become available to come to the coroner in Alice Springs
than there were different sets of hearings or as the
coroner had different questions to ask for things to investigate.
(05:57):
So the first thing I wanted to touch on the
kind of evidence that the coroner, her name is Elizabeth Armitage,
so the kind of evidence that she was looking at.
She expanded her scope of reference to look into racism
in the ant Police force while the inquest was ongoing.
She said, one of the reasons she examined evidence about
racism in the force was quote to investigate whether mister Rolf,
(06:21):
so that's Zachary Rolf, the police officer held racist attitudes
towards Aboriginal people, and if he did, whether his conduct
was influenced by that racism in a way that increased
the likelihood of death. Because, as I said, the coroner's
job is to find out the reasons why a person died,
what happened when a person died, and then to make
(06:41):
recommendations to avoid that situation in the future. So she
was trying to find out why Rolph shot Walker and
to make recommendations about the ant Police's approach. And she
found that evidence of racism in the force was relevant
because it allowed her to make recommendations about how the
police approaches Aboriginal people that it's seeking to arrest.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Okay, So Ralph the officer in question, he was actually
questioned throughout this inquest or. He was called upon to
give his version of events and face questioning from Elizabeth
Armitage what happened there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
He sought to avoid appearing at the inquest during its first.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Year of hearings.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
He made legal appeals to avoid having to face the inquest.
At that point he had already been through the criminal
trial that had acquitted him of murder, so he was
seeking to avoid appearing at the inquest. He did speak
eventually in February twenty twenty four. He had been granted
quote self incrimination protection. This meant that he couldn't face
(07:46):
legal consequences for admissions.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
That he made.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
And again, as I said, it's not a trial. He
had already been through a trial and had been acquitted okay,
but his legal team had sought for there to be
protections from any further the possibility of criminal charges around
things that he might say.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Okay, so he was cleared of those murder charges. He
did not want to appear at the inquest, but eventually
agreed to on the grounds that basically anything he said
would not result in further criminal proceedings. Yes, knowing that
this inquest did go on for so long and heard
from so many different people, different stakeholders, community representatives, law
(08:26):
enforcement representatives, can you give us some of the key findings?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So, I mean, even within things that I would consider
the key findings, there's a lot to break down. When
we got the inquest document, which is more than six
hundred pages, I said to you, Wow, there's just so
much here, and all of it is important. So I'll
start with what the coroner heard at the inquest and
what she has found about Kumunjai Walker himself. He was
(08:54):
nineteen when he died, which we knew he had been
exposed to substances including alcohol, cannabis, and sniffing petrol since
he was at least thirteen. At least part of his
childhood had involved violence within the family unit. He couldn't
cope with normal school. He had issues with his hearing
that also weren't adequately treated when he was a child.
(09:16):
A psychologist who worked with him when he was a
teenager found Walker had no ability to regulate his emotions
and was very disconnected from his body. The psychologist said,
he was so dissociated that's a medical term, from his
body due to trauma that when she tried to teach
him a breathing exercise, she said, quote, he had absolutely
(09:36):
no awareness whatsoever of his breath even entering his body.
He spent the majority of his adolescents. The specific wording
used was more than half of each year of every
year from ages thirteen to eighteen, he spent under some
form of legal restriction, so that could look like bail,
court orders, juvenile detention. These related to a range of
(09:59):
crimes in including break ins and domestic violence towards his
then girlfriend. Okay, So, in short, a very troubled young
person with what the coroner called poor impulse control, which
she found was not helped by repeated detentions and restrictions.
In the days before his death, he had threatened police
officers with an axe and run away.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
That's in the town of Jundamu.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Okay. So these findings have painted a picture of as
you said, or in the coroner's words, is very troubled
young person who had a frequent engagement with law enforcement,
with the system a life that was really marred by
all this inequality and lack of support. Yep, that is
certainly the picture that's been painted. So let's talk about
(10:45):
the day that kumen Ji Walker died, the day he
was shot. Why was he in Jundimou on that day?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
He'd traveled there for a family funeral, but he was
under conditions at that time that he needed to stay
at a rehab for s and Alice Springs. Those were
court ordered conditions and.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
This was an alcohol rehabilitation facility.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Okay, So, as I touched on.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He had substance abuse, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Access to substances, exposure to substances from the beginning of
his adolescence. So he was at an alcohol rehab facility
in Alice Springs, which is about three hundred k's from Yondermu.
He had to wear an ankle bracelet and electronic monitoring bracelet.
He cut it off his leg and traveled to Yondamu
for the family funeral. The coroner found this was because
(11:32):
quote the desire to be with his family for funeral
and ceremony obligations overrode any commitment to the conditions set
by the court, even if it meant that.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
His freedom would be short lived.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Breaching these conditions meant that police were bound to arrest
him because he had breached court ordered conditions.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Okay. So that's what the coroner found about Kumenji Walker,
reflecting on his life, his adolescence, his background, the circumstances
leading up to the day he died, and what brought
him to yundermu. What about Zachary Rolf, This is the
Northern Territory Police officer involved.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So Coroner Elizabeth Armitage found that Walker and Rolf's lives
were quote far removed. Those were her words, far removed
from each other. She said Rolf had had a loving
childhood in Canberra, after which he joined the Defense Force
and then sought to join the police. The way that
he sought to join the police was that he applied
to police forces in multiple states and in the Northern
(12:32):
Territory four different ones. On each of these applications he
either lied or failed to disclose important information. So this
included previous drug use and charges relating to theft and
to public nuisance and violent behavior. When Queensland Police checked
his records and found out that he had lied on
this application, it blocked him from reapplying for ten years.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
That is really significant. I mean, I'm not sure how
things go in most states, but the idea of someone
wanting to be a police officer and applying to do
so in four states and territories, having this criminal history
that Zachary Rolf had, it just seems like a very
(13:15):
interesting point. Yes, but we do know ultimately he becomes
a police officer in the Northern Territory. So I guess
my question is how did he do that? What kind
of testing or process did they have in place.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So while when he receives this notice from Queensland Police
at the same time his anti police application is progressing,
he undergoes a psychological test. It finds his quote less
likely than many others to own up to a mistake,
is more aggressive than others, and while this was not
yet a concern, it said he had the potential to
(13:52):
resent authority figures. The inquest heard the Anti Police force
did not check Rolf's criminal record and considered him an
ex candidate. And also there's doesn't seem to be evidence
that they ever heard from Queensland Police about his restrictional applying.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
There, Okay, that's a ten year ban and this is
he was considered an excellent candidate after undergoing a series
of tests that would include that psychological evaluation.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
As a police officer, the coroner found Rolf quote had
a tendency to rush into situations even if they were unsafe,
and that he had been forceful in arresting Aboriginal boys
and men, causing them injuries on a few occasions in
the past. The inquest heard Rolph sent videos recorded on
his body worn camera body cam. You might have heard
(14:38):
it called to others in his life.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So police footage recorded as during an arrest, and then
he has shared that with.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
People on this side of the force, yes, including people
outside of the force, of times that he had injured
people he was arresting. The coroner found he quote thought
this was funny.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Lucy. You mentioned at the top the episode that ultimately
the coroner did find racism was involved, or that Zachary
Rolf was a racist officer.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
What was the nature of that finding specifically.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So Armitage found that Rolf was a racist, and not
only was he a racist, he was embedded in a
racist culture in the anti police force. And I remember
when we covered Rolf's evidence at the inquest. That was
a huge aspect of it was this evidence that he
himself brought to demonstrate a racist culture within the anti
police force.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah. I remember that at the time and tell me
if I'm wrong. But I think his suggestion was you
shouldn't be looking at me the individual, you should be
looking at systemic issues.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, that was something the coroner's report reflected as well.
Armitage said she couldn't rule out the possibility that racism
was a contributing factor to Walker's death, So she couldn't
rule it in, but she couldn't rule it out.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I cannot exclude that possibility. Is a tragedy for Kuminjay's
family and community, who will always believe that racism played
an integral part in his death, and it is a
taint that may stain the NT police.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Okay, So, Lucy, you've painted this picture for us of
the life of Kumenjai Walker, the life of Zachary Rolf,
the circumstances leading up to Walker's death. What kind of
a police officer Rolf was? What did the coroner say
or find about the day that they met that fateful
November twenty nineteen arrest.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
So Armitage found that remember I mentioned earlier that their
life experiences were so far removed from each other. She
found that neither of them understood each other's reactions on
that day. She also found that Rolf and Adam Abol
who was the other cop there, should have planned the
arrest quote carefully. Remember I mentioned that Kumanji had run
(16:55):
at some police officers with an edged weapon in the
previous days. Now there was a plan in place for
his arrest. It would have taken place at five am
on the tenth of November. A group of police went
from Alice Springs to Jundamu to execute this plan, which
had been designed by senior officers. But once they got there,
(17:16):
Rolf overrode the plan and said they would go to
arrest Walker that night, the ninth. Then the altercation that
we've already described took place, so he's rushed in, as
the coroner found he had a history of doing.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
This is I think a really fundamental finding. As you
mentioned in the six hundred pages of this report from
the ANTIQ coroner, there is so much important detail there,
but this almost sliding doors moment of what could have
been that there was a plan in place for an arrest.
The following day. Yet the night before this took place
(17:54):
and the shooting unfolded, what can you tell us about
the that night?
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Oh, and before I do, I should just say we'll
link the inquest in the show notes. And even though
we have said it's more than six hundred pages, it's
actually not that difficult to read. Is written in fairly
plain language.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
And kind of bullet points by theme.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, so if it's not going to be I mean,
it's obviously emotionally difficult to read, but it's not like
a legal document. It's quite easy to read in that sense.
So we will link it if people are interested in
finding out more themselves. But back to the ninth of
November twenty nineteen. So, after Rolf shot Walker, he and
a bearl quote dragged him to their police car. That's
(18:40):
what the inquest heard. The officer's treatment of Walker distressed
his family who were around, and was not in line
with police policy. At the Yundimu police station, Rolf gave
Walker first aid.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
This was after he'd already been shot several times.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, so he's been dragged to the car, taken to
the station.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Why wasn't he taken to a hospital?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
So there's not a I mean, there's not a hospital
in this remote town. There's a health clinic, but the
health clinic was at that moment closed for other ongoing
reasons in Yondermoux, and the.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Staff were elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
But the car owner kind of had a mixed finding
around how helpful they could have been, or even if
he was airlifted to Alice Springs Hospital, how much time
they necessarily had in order to treat his wounds. But
at any rate, he was given first aid at the station,
but they didn't have the supplies necessary. Walker's condition deteriorated
(19:36):
and he died on the floor of a cell at
the police station. While he was inside, a senior Aboriginal
community police officer told the police officers inside to lock
the station door because a crowd had gathered outside, having
seen Walker being dragged to the police car and having
heard gunshots. They were throwing rocks at the building. Walker's
(19:59):
adopted mother remained at the house where he was shot.
He had grandparents who lived very close to the police station,
but they weren't notified that he had been arrested or
that he had died until early the following morning, around
the time that the arrest was planned to have taken place.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Okay, so it's all played out very publicly and I
imagine incredibly distressing scenes in a highly emotional time for onlookers.
But I suppose that helps the coroner paint this picture
of exactly what ended up happening on that night. You
(20:36):
said earlier that the coroner's job is to kind of
lay out or identify the circumstances around a death of
this nature and kind of take the learnings from that
to make recommendations, So be that for government for public health.
What have some of the recommendations been from this inquest?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Armatage made thirty two formal recommendations for Anti Police and
the territory government. So those included reviewing youth services in
jun Demoux and creating programs targeted at young people in
the justice system in order to kind of reduce quote,
offending behavior. She also recommended Anti Police develop a policy
(21:18):
of officers liaising with Aboriginal community officers quote in any
planned interaction or arrest of an Aboriginal person, and also
to intervene with officers who exhibit poor behavior much earlier
than they currently are.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So a lot of early intervention focused priorities and kind
of lived experience or culturally informed practices. What has the
response been like to these recommendations.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, so, the Anti Police said it acknowledged the findings
and recommendations. It said it will consider them. Acting Anti
Police Commissioner Martin Dole said the police extend their sympathies
to Walker's family, But in the wake of that statement
and in the wake of the inquest, community leader ned
Jampajinpa Hargraves has criticized Dol. He said he had promised
(22:07):
to meet with the community after the findings were handed down,
but Hargraves said Dol left jun Demu without telling anyone
that he was going.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Lucy, thank you so much for taking us through that.
An incredibly distressing story, but a really important one and
one that I'm sure a lot of our audience have
been keeping close eye on over these last several years.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. A quick reminder
if this story has raised any concerns for you, particularly
for First Nations listeners, you can call one three yam
(22:39):
that's thirteen ninety two seventy six, or you can call
Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen and we will pop some
links to resources in today's show notes. We'll be back
a little later on today with the evening headlines, but
until then, look after yourself.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Banjelung Kalkadin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest
Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
This story contains distressing details, particularly for First Nations listeners.
If it raises any issues for you, First Nations listeners
can call thirteen yarn that's thirteen ninety two seventy six
and will put that number in the show notes as well.
Or you can join us again on the show tomorrow already.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And this is the Daily Art. This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
It's Wednesday, the ninth of July.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
The Northern Territory Coroner has handed down the long awaited
findings in the inquest into the killing of nineteen year
old Wolpury luricher Man Kumunjaii Walker.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
By then police officer Zachary Rolf.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The coroner has found that Rolf was a racist, embedded
in a racist culture at.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Northern Territory Police, and.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
That Walker's death was avoidable. In today this podcast, we'll
explain the coroner's findings about Rolf and Walker's lives and
her recommendations to the Territory government and police.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Lucy, it's hard to believe it's been six years since
the death of Kumenjai Walker. This story has really dominated
headlines or been kind of omnipresent in the news cycle
ever since. Yeah, for many reasons. There's been a court case,
there's been criminal investigations, and of course this inquest, which
(01:32):
reached a conclusion this week with the final report from
the coroner. All of that is to say, this has
been a really long time coming. So can you give
us a bit of a sense of the timeline of
the past six years to help us kind of understand
where this has all come from.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, so this really begins on the ninth of November
twenty nineteen. That's when Northern Territory Police officer Zachary Rolf
entered a home in the remote town of Yondermoux with.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
His colleague Adam Oberl. He was there to arrest.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Kumenjai Walker, who had left an alcohol rehab facility to
attend a family funeral. The arrest went wrong feels like
an understatement. It went very badly wrong. In a physical altercation,
Walker stabbed Rolf in the shoulder with a pair of
surgical scissors. While Eberl was trying to restrain Walker, Rolf
(02:21):
shot him several times. Walker was then taken to Yuendumu
police station where he died. Rolf was tried and found
not guilty of murdering Walker in March twenty twenty two.
To the concert of Walker's family, the jury had no
Aboriginal members. A coronial inquest, the one that we're talking
about today, began in September of that year. So September
(02:45):
twenty twenty two to the present is the time that
this inquest has been taking place.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Okay, So just to recap, in twenty nineteen two, Northern
Territory police officers arrest Kumenjai Walker. During that arrest there
is a physical altar case Qumin Diy Walker ends up
being shot several times by Zachary Rolf and he later
dies in police custody at the station in Yondermu. What
(03:11):
is a coronial in quest, Lucie? What does that all involve?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, I think it's important to specify that it's not
a trial. It's not carried out by a judge. It
can't make a finding of guilt or innocence. It's something
that can happen before or after a trial, and basically
it's held when someone dies in circumstances that are not
readily explainable or in very specific circumstances. So if a
(03:37):
you know, say, an eighty five year old was to
die in their sleep, that wouldn't be cause for a
coronial inquestka, But other forms of deaths are the subject
of these in the Northern Territory. They're held when a
person dies in quote unexpected, unnatural or violent circumstances, including
when a person was held in or immediately before death,
(04:00):
was held in care or custody.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
So you mentioned that a coronial inquest is not a
criminal court hearing, but we'll hear the coroner's court referred
to in these kinds of stories. But when not talking
about the kind of court we might think of.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, they can't find someone guilty of a crime or
sentence them to jail or anything like that. They can
only make findings about the person's death, and they can
also make recommendations to improve public health and safety as
a result of what they've found. So, for example, if
a house burns down, the coroner might investigate the causes
(04:35):
of the house burning down and make recommendations to prevent
further houses from burning down in similar ways.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Okay, that makes sense. So you mentioned that this inquest
began in September twenty twenty two, at that point, three
years after Cooman Jy Walker's death, and it's now been
another three years. It's been quite a long running in quest.
What did it involve? And bluntly, why did it take
so long?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of reasons, I think. I mean,
the main reason why it took so long is that
there was a lot to investigate and a lot to understand.
The inquest had many rounds of hearings. It heard from
a lot of different people. It heard from people in
Yon Demu on the day that Kamenjai Walker was shot
and then died.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
It heard from nt police.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So its rounds of hearings were September to November twenty
twenty two, then again in early twenty twenty three, and
then again another three sets of hearings in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Okay, so it hasn't been consistently running week in week
out for three years.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
No, in the same way that you might think of.
I know, yesterday we were talking about the trial of
Aaron Patterson, so that runs straight through for ten weeks.
This is different. This is as different kinds of people
become available to come to the coroner in Alice Springs
than there were different sets of hearings or as the
coroner had different questions to ask for things to investigate.
(05:57):
So the first thing I wanted to touch on the
kind of evidence that the coroner, her name is Elizabeth Armitage,
so the kind of evidence that she was looking at.
She expanded her scope of reference to look into racism
in the ant Police force while the inquest was ongoing.
She said, one of the reasons she examined evidence about
racism in the force was quote to investigate whether mister Rolf,
(06:21):
so that's Zachary Rolf, the police officer held racist attitudes
towards Aboriginal people, and if he did, whether his conduct
was influenced by that racism in a way that increased
the likelihood of death. Because, as I said, the coroner's
job is to find out the reasons why a person died,
what happened when a person died, and then to make
(06:41):
recommendations to avoid that situation in the future. So she
was trying to find out why Rolph shot Walker and
to make recommendations about the ant Police's approach. And she
found that evidence of racism in the force was relevant
because it allowed her to make recommendations about how the
police approaches Aboriginal people that it's seeking to arrest.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Okay, So Ralph the officer in question, he was actually
questioned throughout this inquest or. He was called upon to
give his version of events and face questioning from Elizabeth
Armitage what happened there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
He sought to avoid appearing at the inquest during its first.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Year of hearings.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
He made legal appeals to avoid having to face the inquest.
At that point he had already been through the criminal
trial that had acquitted him of murder, so he was
seeking to avoid appearing at the inquest. He did speak
eventually in February twenty twenty four. He had been granted
quote self incrimination protection. This meant that he couldn't face
(07:46):
legal consequences for admissions.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
That he made.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
And again, as I said, it's not a trial. He
had already been through a trial and had been acquitted okay,
but his legal team had sought for there to be
protections from any further the possibility of criminal charges around
things that he might say.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Okay, so he was cleared of those murder charges. He
did not want to appear at the inquest, but eventually
agreed to on the grounds that basically anything he said
would not result in further criminal proceedings. Yes, knowing that
this inquest did go on for so long and heard
from so many different people, different stakeholders, community representatives, law
(08:26):
enforcement representatives, can you give us some of the key findings?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So, I mean, even within things that I would consider
the key findings, there's a lot to break down. When
we got the inquest document, which is more than six
hundred pages, I said to you, Wow, there's just so
much here, and all of it is important. So I'll
start with what the coroner heard at the inquest and
what she has found about Kumunjai Walker himself. He was
(08:54):
nineteen when he died, which we knew he had been
exposed to substances including alcohol, cannabis, and sniffing petrol since
he was at least thirteen. At least part of his
childhood had involved violence within the family unit. He couldn't
cope with normal school. He had issues with his hearing
that also weren't adequately treated when he was a child.
(09:16):
A psychologist who worked with him when he was a
teenager found Walker had no ability to regulate his emotions
and was very disconnected from his body. The psychologist said,
he was so dissociated that's a medical term, from his
body due to trauma that when she tried to teach
him a breathing exercise, she said, quote, he had absolutely
(09:36):
no awareness whatsoever of his breath even entering his body.
He spent the majority of his adolescents. The specific wording
used was more than half of each year of every
year from ages thirteen to eighteen, he spent under some
form of legal restriction, so that could look like bail,
court orders, juvenile detention. These related to a range of
(09:59):
crimes in including break ins and domestic violence towards his
then girlfriend. Okay, So, in short, a very troubled young
person with what the coroner called poor impulse control, which
she found was not helped by repeated detentions and restrictions.
In the days before his death, he had threatened police
officers with an axe and run away.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
That's in the town of Jundamu.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Okay. So these findings have painted a picture of as
you said, or in the coroner's words, is very troubled
young person who had a frequent engagement with law enforcement,
with the system a life that was really marred by
all this inequality and lack of support. Yep, that is
certainly the picture that's been painted. So let's talk about
(10:45):
the day that kumen Ji Walker died, the day he
was shot. Why was he in Jundimou on that day?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
He'd traveled there for a family funeral, but he was
under conditions at that time that he needed to stay
at a rehab for s and Alice Springs. Those were
court ordered conditions and.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
This was an alcohol rehabilitation facility.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Okay, So, as I touched on.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He had substance abuse, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Access to substances, exposure to substances from the beginning of
his adolescence. So he was at an alcohol rehab facility
in Alice Springs, which is about three hundred k's from Yondermu.
He had to wear an ankle bracelet and electronic monitoring bracelet.
He cut it off his leg and traveled to Yondamu
for the family funeral. The coroner found this was because
(11:32):
quote the desire to be with his family for funeral
and ceremony obligations overrode any commitment to the conditions set
by the court, even if it meant that.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
His freedom would be short lived.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Breaching these conditions meant that police were bound to arrest
him because he had breached court ordered conditions.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Okay. So that's what the coroner found about Kumenji Walker,
reflecting on his life, his adolescence, his background, the circumstances
leading up to the day he died, and what brought
him to yundermu. What about Zachary Rolf, This is the
Northern Territory Police officer involved.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So Coroner Elizabeth Armitage found that Walker and Rolf's lives
were quote far removed. Those were her words, far removed
from each other. She said Rolf had had a loving
childhood in Canberra, after which he joined the Defense Force
and then sought to join the police. The way that
he sought to join the police was that he applied
to police forces in multiple states and in the Northern
(12:32):
Territory four different ones. On each of these applications he
either lied or failed to disclose important information. So this
included previous drug use and charges relating to theft and
to public nuisance and violent behavior. When Queensland Police checked
his records and found out that he had lied on
this application, it blocked him from reapplying for ten years.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
That is really significant. I mean, I'm not sure how
things go in most states, but the idea of someone
wanting to be a police officer and applying to do
so in four states and territories, having this criminal history
that Zachary Rolf had, it just seems like a very
(13:15):
interesting point. Yes, but we do know ultimately he becomes
a police officer in the Northern Territory. So I guess
my question is how did he do that? What kind
of testing or process did they have in place.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So while when he receives this notice from Queensland Police
at the same time his anti police application is progressing,
he undergoes a psychological test. It finds his quote less
likely than many others to own up to a mistake,
is more aggressive than others, and while this was not
yet a concern, it said he had the potential to
(13:52):
resent authority figures. The inquest heard the Anti Police force
did not check Rolf's criminal record and considered him an
ex candidate. And also there's doesn't seem to be evidence
that they ever heard from Queensland Police about his restrictional applying.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
There, Okay, that's a ten year ban and this is
he was considered an excellent candidate after undergoing a series
of tests that would include that psychological evaluation.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
As a police officer, the coroner found Rolf quote had
a tendency to rush into situations even if they were unsafe,
and that he had been forceful in arresting Aboriginal boys
and men, causing them injuries on a few occasions in
the past. The inquest heard Rolph sent videos recorded on
his body worn camera body cam. You might have heard
(14:38):
it called to others in his life.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So police footage recorded as during an arrest, and then
he has shared that with.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
People on this side of the force, yes, including people
outside of the force, of times that he had injured
people he was arresting. The coroner found he quote thought
this was funny.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Lucy. You mentioned at the top the episode that ultimately
the coroner did find racism was involved, or that Zachary
Rolf was a racist officer.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
What was the nature of that finding specifically.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So Armitage found that Rolf was a racist, and not
only was he a racist, he was embedded in a
racist culture in the anti police force. And I remember
when we covered Rolf's evidence at the inquest. That was
a huge aspect of it was this evidence that he
himself brought to demonstrate a racist culture within the anti
police force.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah. I remember that at the time and tell me
if I'm wrong. But I think his suggestion was you
shouldn't be looking at me the individual, you should be
looking at systemic issues.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, that was something the coroner's report reflected as well.
Armitage said she couldn't rule out the possibility that racism
was a contributing factor to Walker's death, So she couldn't
rule it in, but she couldn't rule it out.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I cannot exclude that possibility. Is a tragedy for Kuminjay's
family and community, who will always believe that racism played
an integral part in his death, and it is a
taint that may stain the NT police.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Okay, So, Lucy, you've painted this picture for us of
the life of Kumenjai Walker, the life of Zachary Rolf,
the circumstances leading up to Walker's death. What kind of
a police officer Rolf was? What did the coroner say
or find about the day that they met that fateful
November twenty nineteen arrest.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
So Armitage found that remember I mentioned earlier that their
life experiences were so far removed from each other. She
found that neither of them understood each other's reactions on
that day. She also found that Rolf and Adam Abol
who was the other cop there, should have planned the
arrest quote carefully. Remember I mentioned that Kumanji had run
(16:55):
at some police officers with an edged weapon in the
previous days. Now there was a plan in place for
his arrest. It would have taken place at five am
on the tenth of November. A group of police went
from Alice Springs to Jundamu to execute this plan, which
had been designed by senior officers. But once they got there,
(17:16):
Rolf overrode the plan and said they would go to
arrest Walker that night, the ninth. Then the altercation that
we've already described took place, so he's rushed in, as
the coroner found he had a history of doing.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
This is I think a really fundamental finding. As you
mentioned in the six hundred pages of this report from
the ANTIQ coroner, there is so much important detail there,
but this almost sliding doors moment of what could have
been that there was a plan in place for an arrest.
The following day. Yet the night before this took place
(17:54):
and the shooting unfolded, what can you tell us about
the that night?
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Oh, and before I do, I should just say we'll
link the inquest in the show notes. And even though
we have said it's more than six hundred pages, it's
actually not that difficult to read. Is written in fairly
plain language.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
And kind of bullet points by theme.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, so if it's not going to be I mean,
it's obviously emotionally difficult to read, but it's not like
a legal document. It's quite easy to read in that sense.
So we will link it if people are interested in
finding out more themselves. But back to the ninth of
November twenty nineteen. So, after Rolf shot Walker, he and
a bearl quote dragged him to their police car. That's
(18:40):
what the inquest heard. The officer's treatment of Walker distressed
his family who were around, and was not in line
with police policy. At the Yundimu police station, Rolf gave
Walker first aid.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
This was after he'd already been shot several times.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, so he's been dragged to the car, taken to
the station.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Why wasn't he taken to a hospital?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
So there's not a I mean, there's not a hospital
in this remote town. There's a health clinic, but the
health clinic was at that moment closed for other ongoing
reasons in Yondermoux, and the.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Staff were elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
But the car owner kind of had a mixed finding
around how helpful they could have been, or even if
he was airlifted to Alice Springs Hospital, how much time
they necessarily had in order to treat his wounds. But
at any rate, he was given first aid at the station,
but they didn't have the supplies necessary. Walker's condition deteriorated
(19:36):
and he died on the floor of a cell at
the police station. While he was inside, a senior Aboriginal
community police officer told the police officers inside to lock
the station door because a crowd had gathered outside, having
seen Walker being dragged to the police car and having
heard gunshots. They were throwing rocks at the building. Walker's
(19:59):
adopted mother remained at the house where he was shot.
He had grandparents who lived very close to the police station,
but they weren't notified that he had been arrested or
that he had died until early the following morning, around
the time that the arrest was planned to have taken place.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Okay, so it's all played out very publicly and I
imagine incredibly distressing scenes in a highly emotional time for onlookers.
But I suppose that helps the coroner paint this picture
of exactly what ended up happening on that night. You
(20:36):
said earlier that the coroner's job is to kind of
lay out or identify the circumstances around a death of
this nature and kind of take the learnings from that
to make recommendations, So be that for government for public health.
What have some of the recommendations been from this inquest?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Armatage made thirty two formal recommendations for Anti Police and
the territory government. So those included reviewing youth services in
jun Demoux and creating programs targeted at young people in
the justice system in order to kind of reduce quote,
offending behavior. She also recommended Anti Police develop a policy
(21:18):
of officers liaising with Aboriginal community officers quote in any
planned interaction or arrest of an Aboriginal person, and also
to intervene with officers who exhibit poor behavior much earlier
than they currently are.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So a lot of early intervention focused priorities and kind
of lived experience or culturally informed practices. What has the
response been like to these recommendations.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, so, the Anti Police said it acknowledged the findings
and recommendations. It said it will consider them. Acting Anti
Police Commissioner Martin Dole said the police extend their sympathies
to Walker's family, But in the wake of that statement
and in the wake of the inquest, community leader ned
Jampajinpa Hargraves has criticized Dol. He said he had promised
(22:07):
to meet with the community after the findings were handed down,
but Hargraves said Dol left jun Demu without telling anyone
that he was going.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Lucy, thank you so much for taking us through that.
An incredibly distressing story, but a really important one and
one that I'm sure a lot of our audience have
been keeping close eye on over these last several years.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. A quick reminder
if this story has raised any concerns for you, particularly
for First Nations listeners, you can call one three yam
(22:39):
that's thirteen ninety two seventy six, or you can call
Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen and we will pop some
links to resources in today's show notes. We'll be back
a little later on today with the evening headlines, but
until then, look after yourself.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Banjelung Kalkadin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest
Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
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