Former Northern Territory officer Zachary Rolfe has told the coroner’s court he feels ‘very badly’ for the family of Kumanjayi Walker, whom he shot and killed in 2019.
The Warlpiri Luritja teenager died from his injuries after Rolfe discharged three shots into Walker at point blank range during the course of a botched arrest in November of that year.
Rolfe was tried for murder before the NT supreme court in 2021 but was unanimously found not guilty by the jury.
A subsequent coronial inquest into the matter, begun in September 2022 and initially due to run for several months, has now stretched into its second year.
Rolfe told the court on Tuesday that he was ‘bored’ by the process.
“I don’t feel any anger at all, I’m just bored of the situation,” said Rolfe in response to a question about his attitude towards his former employers, the NT police force.
“I’d like for it to finalise,” Mr Rolfe said.
In the course of the inquiry, accusations and evidence of extremely racist behaviour on the part of sections of the NT police have emerged in the form of testimony, text messages and images of awards given out to officers.
Rolfe’s use of force against several members of the public, some Aboriginal, was also examined.
In revelations on Monday, it emerged that Rolfe was accused of a ‘racist’ use of force incident just days before he fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker.
The inquest was shown body-worn camera footage of Mr Rolfe striking an Aboriginal man in the head in September 2019, weeks before shooting Mr Walker.
When Mr Rolfe was asked whether he punched the young man, he said “it might have been a small slap”.
The footage showed the man hitting the bonnet of a police car with his hand before being struck by Mr Rolfe.
The man then accused Rolfe of being racist.
On Tuesday, Rolfe said he felt bad that the process was ongoing for Kumanjayi Walker’s family.
“I’m sorry for the trauma that they’ve gone through and I’m sorry it’s been multiplied over the last few years, I feel very badly for them,” Mr Rolfe said.
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