A shocking bodycam video shows the moment that a policeman was stabbed while making an arrest in a remote Indigenous community. The attacker was shot dead.
Kumanjayi Walker, 19 years old, was gunned-down in Yuendumu (300km northwest of Alice Springs) on November 9, 2019. The victim had cut off an ankle monitor bracelet and fled from a court-ordered drug or alcohol treatment facility.
The video shows Zach Rolfe (30), a Northern Territory officer, questioning the teenager about who he is before Walker lunges at them with the blade.
Three gunshots can be heard at 2.6 seconds intervals as the ex-Afghan war veteran repeatedly says ‘he’s stabbing’.
In shocking footage from his body camera, Zach Rolfe (pictured), a Northern Territory police officer (30) questions the teenager about who he is. Walker then lunges at them both with a blade
Rolfe was the triggerman. He was initially cleared of any wrongdoing, but was later charged with murder following a review. He will face trial at the NT Supreme Court next spring.
“He was a skinny young male and these police officers were more powerful than him and could have out-maneuvered him,” said Mr Walker’s grandmother Bess price to Seven News Spotlight special Life and Death.
The court ordered Mr Walker to receive treatment at the CAAAPU drug- and alcohol facility. He had a 13-page criminal record for theft, assault, break and into, and attacking police.
However, he jumped the fence after removing his tracker device on October 29.
On November 5, a warrant was issued for his arrest and two officers followed him.
They tried to make an arrest, but Mr Walker threatened them with an electric axe and they fled into the bush.
Kumanjayi Walker (pictured on police bodycam) was shot to death in Yuendumu on November 9, 2019. He had cut off an ankle-monitoring bracelet, escaped from a court-ordered drug treatment facility, and fled from it days earlier.
After being sent from Alice Springs on November 9, Mr Rolfe (aged 30) and another officer were assigned to apprehend the fugitive.
The bodycam footage shows Mr Walker being asked his identity by the two men, who suspect it to be him.
The teenager appears calm, and gives the officers an incorrect name before jumping at them with scissors.
Mr Rolfe was stabbed in his shoulder while his partner had the blade thrust into the armpit of his partner.
In the chaos, you can hear one shot and then two more as Walker and the other officer fight for their lives on the ground.
Rolfe can be heard saying “He’s stabbing!” before shouting “let go of those scissors!”
Police are seen entering the Indigenous community of Yuendumu to arrest Mr Walker
Rolfe and his partner quickly attempted to render first aid. They carried him to the police car before trying to treat him on a floor in a police cell.
Their efforts are futile and Mr Walker succumbs eventually to the gunshot wounds in his lung.
Scott Rotor, an American crime and shooting scene reconstruction expert, believes that the shooting was justified. He has worked on more than 700 cases.
He stated that he noticed the officers’ professional behavior first when he was watching the body cam video. However, he felt that the officers might have been a bit too friendly.
Pictured: Kumanjayi (Arnold) Walker
“When it goes from zero up to 100, I don’t think he was ready.
“He had to balance pain and adrenaline with the safety of his partner.
Rotor stated it was ridiculous to claim that there was pre-meditation in the 2.6 seconds that separated the first shot and the second shot.
It sounds like a long time, but when you’re in high adrenaline situations it seems like it takes seconds. He said that he believes survival is what is happening.
“I sympathize in cases of police violence, however, this is not one of those cases.
“This is not a person who walks home from church with a gallon milk. This is a motivated individual, 19-year-old… that’s not a boy, that’s a man.’