Lawyers for the Northern Territory Police Force have described one of their own former officers as an alleged "racist … sexist … misogynist" and "narcissist, with grandiose ideas about his own abilities", at the inquest into the fatal police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.
WARNING: This story contains racist and offensive language.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are also advised that this article contains the name and image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Ian Freckelton KC urged the coroner to find that Zachary Rolfe was an exception to the rule when it came to the kind of frontline officer the NT police has on its force.
"It is absolutely undeniable that Mr Rolfe is a racist," Dr Freckelton alleged.
"People who talk about 'loser locals, 'c**ns' [and] 'Neanderthals'… are racists and it's important to call it as it is."
Dr Freckelton said NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy — who was earlier this year investigated by the ICAC after separate allegations of racism were levelled at him — was "committed" to calling out racism.
An NT Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation later found there was not enough evidence prove the allegations.
Mr Rolfe was dismissed from the NT Police Force last year, after penning an open letter criticising the inquest and former police commissioner.
He fatally shot 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest in the remote central Australian community of Yuendumu more than five years ago.
Mr Rolfe was acquitted of Mr Walker's murder in 2022, after a jury found he acted in self-defence when he fired three shots.
Dr Freckelton told the inquest the then-officer's policing style was "impulsive, hasty … [and] unjustifiably aggressive", accusing Mr Rolfe of being "regularly insubordinate".
"It's also clear enough that he's sexist, he's a misogynist, he's homophobic, he has disrespect for authority, and he has contempt [for] bush cops," Dr Freckelton alleged.
Those attributes, the coroner heard, could be discerned from a series of text messages received into evidence — despite Mr Rolfe's objections — and were on display on the night Kumanjayi Walker was shot, Dr Freckelton said.
"There is ample reason to conclude that his sexism, his antipathy for authority and his contempt for bush police played a role in why he did not comply with what was required of him by [local Yuendumu] Sergeant Frost," he alleged.
The coroner heard allegations that Mr Rolfe "abandoned" a plan to safely arrest Mr Walker, which had been developed by a senior female police officer.
Dr Freckelton told the coroner that while "we know that Mr Rolfe was a racist, and racist people translate their words to actions", it would be "speculative" to find that racism played a part in his decision to fire his Glock three times on the night of November 9, 2019.
"He didn't say anything which indicated a particular racist attitude to Kumanjayi as an Aboriginal man," Dr Freckelton said.
"What he did was to be a really poor policeman.
"He didn't plan, he didn't listen, he didn't think, he just burst into action as a hero in his own head."
He urged the coroner to be "restrained" in her findings and recommendations, telling the court she could not make a finding of systemic racism within the police force as a whole.
"A proper appreciation of what led to the delinquent conduct of Mr Rolfe is to be found in other aspects of his personality, policing style and his attitudes," Dr Freckelton said.
"It is not open to you, on the evidence, to find that racism figures among such considerations, or that it is appropriate or open to make a finding of institutional racism."
In reply, Mr Rolfe's representative, Luke Officer, urged the coroner not to "single out" the former officer and pointed to evidence that members of the Territory Response Group (TRG) allegedly "engaged in highly inappropriate conduct" by handing out a series of "racist awards" and "lied to [the coroner]".
Mr Officer told the coroner the contents of Mr Rolfe's text messages were irrelevant to her findings.
Dr Freckelton also apologised to Mr Walker's family for the role the NT Police Force played in his death, assuring the community the force was committed to change.
Shooting 'extremely unlikely and tragic event'
Earlier, representatives of the Northern Territory Health Department defended the decision to evacuate Yuendumu's nursing staff, just hours before Mr Walker was shot.
Tom Hutton, for the department, said a community member being shot by a police officer was an "extremely unlikely and tragic event", which could not have been predicted when staff were temporarily withdrawn.
The coroner heard nurses were evacuated from the community for their own safety, after a "considerable" number of break-ins at health staff quarters.
"[Between November 6 and 9] there were three attempted home invasions, one break-in, one attempted break-in and three car break-ins," Mr Hutton said.
"The very real danger that such threatening behaviour poses … should not be controversial."
He said there were "no other mechanisms immediately available" to ensure staff safety over the weekend that Mr Walker ultimately died.
"It is devastating the nursing staff were not with Kumanjayi on 9 November, to render him any assistance or comfort that they could," Mr Hutton said.
He conceded there should have been better consultation with the community prior to staff evacuating on 9 November 2019 and told the coroner the department's withdrawal processes had since been updated to reflect that.
Mr Hutton vehemently rejected suggestions from other parties to the inquest that systemic racism within the department contributed to the decision.
NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage told the inquest she was likely to hand down her findings in late February 2025, but would be "consulting with the community as to the appropriateness of the timing".
