Kumanjayi Walker, 19, was shot three times by Constable Zachary Rolfe in Australia in 2019.

The police officer who killed Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker in 2019 was “racist” and had an “attraction” to adrenaline-style policing, a coroner’s inquest has found.

Walker, 19, died shortly after he was shot three times at close range by Constable Zachary Rolfe during a home arrest in Yuendumu, a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory (NT).

Rolfe - no longer a policeman - was charged with Walker’s murder and acquitted in 2022, sparking protests about Indigenous deaths in custody.

In delivering her findings, Judge Elisabeth Armitage said Walker’s death was “avoidable” and there was “clear evidence of entrenched, systemic and structural racism” within NT’s police force.

  • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    1 day ago

    I’m not just glad this was finally put right but also-

    In her findings, Judge Armitage found that Rolfe made a “series of flawed decisions” that led to “officer-induced jeopardy” - a situation where police “needlessly put themselves in danger… creating a situation that justifies the use of deadly force”.

    She also said Rolfe - a former soldier - found combat situations “exhilarating” and had an “attraction to adrenalin policing”. He had also ignored an arrest plan for Walker created by a female officer because he “thought he knew better”, Judge Armitage said.

    We can finally start to well… police, police being adrenalin junkies and deliberately putting themselves in harms way.