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Police response to Kumanjayi Walker's shooting 'racist', family says

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains images of a person who is deceased.

The cousin of an Indigenous teenager shot dead by a Northern Territory constable has told an inquest that racism drove the police response to the incident.

Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died on November 9, 2019, after Constable Zachary Rolfe, 31, shot him three times in the remote community of Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs.

As he lay dying on the floor of the local police station, his family and the Warlpiri community gathered to find out if the rumours that he'd been shot were true, his cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown told the inquest into his death on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Zachary Rolfe found not guilty of murder over shooting of Kumanjayi Walker

Kumanjayi Walker's cousin Samara Fernandez-Brown

Videos of the night played to the Alice Springs hearing show about 100 people waiting for news outside the building, frustrated and anguished at the lack of information provided by police.

"We don't know what is happening, we got told he has been shot and he is bleeding and at the house there is three cases, gun shells and a lot of blood," Fernandez-Brown says in the recording.

"No one had told us if he's alive."

The court heard his family and community elders repeatedly asked the eight police officers inside the station for information about Walker in the hours after he was shot at 7.22pm at his grandmother's house. But they were told nothing, with most not learning he had died until the next morning.

Asked about the police handling of the incident, Fernandez-Brown said it was evidence of systemic racism in the force.

"It is a common theme in the conversations that I had (in the community) that if this was a kartiya, or a white person, the treatment would be vastly different," she said.

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Kumanjayi Walker USE THIS PHOTO AT FAMILY'S REQUEST

"Nobody deserves what he had in his last moments."

Inside the station police fought to save Walker's life in the absence of trained medical staff who had fled the community earlier in the day after a series of break-ins at their homes.

Walker died at 8.36pm but police said nothing to the community and instead formed a plan to trick them into believing he was still alive out of fear for their own safety.

Outside, the Yuendumu community was also afraid – that the police they had seen patrolling their community with a shotgun and an AR15 assault rifle earlier in the evening may shoot another community member.

"By that point, we were already angry and distressed and fearful … There was this feeling of being disregarded and disrespected," Fernandez-Brown told the inquest.

"There could have been a reaction there but it was subdued by elders and community members because they knew … if there was a reaction it could have prompted another shooting.

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Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe.

"We were genuinely quite scared for our own safety."

The police later formed a convoy of vehicles inside the station compound, including an ambulance, and sped to the airport to meet a plane.

But it was bringing in police reinforcements, not flying Walker to hospital in Alice Springs as his family assumed.

"It was my genuine belief that he was being flown to Alice Springs and … that he was being treated and there was an opportunity to put him in a stable condition and for him survive," Fernandez-Brown said.

Police finally told some of Walker's family that he had died about 11pm. The news was shared with Fernandez-Brown the next morning as officers wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with assault rifles started patrolling the streets.

Videos played for the court show the immense impact Walker's death had on his community. Dozens of Warlpiri people can be seen wailing as they mourned his loss.

"I was devastated … I felt very sickened by the information that he was never on that plane," Fernandez-Brown said.

The hearing continues.

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Man shot by police after officer stabbed in chin in Brisbane

A man has been shot and a police officer is injured after an incident in a Brisbane unit complex this afternoon.

Police confirmed they had been executing a search warrant in a Kangaroo Point unit during investigations into an alleged stabbing last year, when a man from a neighbouring unit approached from behind, stabbing an officer in the chin with a 20cm serrated knife.

"Those four officers entered (the unit)- a short time later, they were confronted by another man in another unit who stabbed one of our officers in the chin," Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said.

READ MORE: Teen arrives at Queensland hospital with gunshot wound to chest

"One of the situations we have when we enter units particularly when people are being uncooperative it's very difficult to negotiate that situation- then to have another person from another unit confront us from behind is concerning."

Superintendent Massingham said the accused, a 38-year-old man then left the unit and was pursued by police.

"On my direction he's been warned, he's been given directions to drop that weapon," he said.

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"My understanding is at some stage a taser was deployed to stop any additional threat to officers… Once again we've had a situation where an officer has had to use lethal force to stop the threat.

"One shot was fired by a junior, female uniform officer- the offender immediately fell to the ground, dropped the weapon and was given treatment immediately."

He is in a critical condition and is currently undergoing surgery for a gun-shot wound in the stomach.

Superintendent Massingham said the uniformed senior constable injured in the incident is recovering with non-life threatening injuries.

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"That officer is getting wonderful treatment at the Mater Hospital," he said.

"He is deeply shocked as to what's occurred."

Six officers and a police recruit responded to the incident in total after back-up was called.

Superintendent Massingham confirmed police had visited the unit before, responding to mental health concerns.

A crime scene has been declared and River Terrace is currently closed between Bell Street and Llewellyn Street.

The area is expected to be closed for some time.

The Ethical Standards Command has began a critical incident investigation into the police shooting and will be overseen by the Crime and Corruption Commission.