He was then raised by one of his mother's friends, Leanne Oldfield, who was living with Walker's father, Frank, at the Warlpiri camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs.
Having complied with these conditions through to March 2019, he requested permission to visit Yuendumu for his “little sister”'s funeral, and this was granted by his Community Youth Justice Officer.
However, he tampered with his electronic monitoring device and two days later, he broke into the town store with an accomplice, destroying equipment and stealing up to $7,000 worth of cigarettes.
[12] In December 2016, during his first week with the NT Police, he rescued two tourists from flood waters near Alice Springs, for which he and a colleague were awarded the Bravery Medal in 2018.
[14] NT Police considered referring Rolfe to the Director of Public Prosecutions for perjury charges over the Ryder incident, but decided against it.
[20] Smith gave evidence in the Supreme Court that he "didn’t feel that he was going to hurt me" and that he saw the use of the axe as "more of an intimidation to get out of the room... a show to his partner... he just wanted to get away".
[19] Sergeant Julie Frost, the officer in charge of the Yuendumu station, spoke to the grandparents later that day, telling them also that Walker could have been shot.
The Supreme Court later heard that the IRT members were aware of the axe incident, and had viewed the body-worn camera footage from the failed arrest attempt.
There had been similar incidents in the preceding months, and, fearing for the nurses' safety, health department officials decided to evacuate all medical staff and their families on the morning of 9 November.
Frost had planned to arrest Walker with the aid of the IRT members and a dog handler on the following morning if he didn't show that evening as arranged.
According to court documents, the assumed facts (comprising body-worn camera footage from Eberl and Hawkings along with transcripts from the audio) include the following:[30]At 7:21:50pm, the accused stated to the deceased, "Just put your hands behind your back."
[9] Some members of the Aboriginal community have since blamed Walker's death on the absence of medical staff at the clinic or the RFDS decision not to attend the incident.
[33] Subsequently, Yuendumu elders successfully demanded that the local clinic manager, who had been out of town at the time having her vandalised car repaired, not be allowed to return.
Karczewski and senior police directed that charges be laid no later than the November, and took the unusual step of demanding investigators sign non-disclosure agreements about the case.
[35] The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Michael Gunner, flew to Yuendumu on 12 November and promised the community that "consequences [would] flow".
In a unanimous decision, the full bench of the High Court held that the protection from liability applied only to "those of the common law ... and the power of arrest".
[39] Given the significant publicity surrounding the case, Rolfe's defence team successfully sought to have the trial moved from Alice Springs to Darwin.
Barrister David Edwardson SC criticised the NT police executive and three of the prosecution witnesses, and said that the trial was not about non-compliance with orders, but about "what Zachary Rolfe saw, heard, felt, and perceived when he made that critical decision".
Following his acquittal, Rolfe told the waiting media that while he welcomed the verdict, "a lot of people are hurting today — Kumanjayi's family and his community... and I'm going to leave this space for them".
[44] Anticipating that members of the Yuendumu community would not receive closure in the event that Rolfe was acquitted, the NT Government prepared a secret report canvassing a whole-of-government response to any not-guilty verdict.
This report predicted brain and nervous system damage in children, an increase in risk-taking behaviour, and attacks on police, health workers and local businesses.
[52] A series of articles about Walker's life, which portrayed him as little more than an habitual criminal, and included a description of his final moments, were published in the paper after the acquittal of the officer charged with his murder.
[52] The Australian journalist Rosemary Neill wrote that her newspaper had "long believed that only by honestly facing up to entrenched problems can solutions be found".
[54] The articles were described by several journalists, including from the ABC's Bridget Brennan, Network 10's Narelda Jacobs, and The West Australian political editor Lanai Scarr as unethical, insensitive, victim-blaming, irresponsible, and "a national disgrace".
[55][56][57] Later, during the coronial inquest into Walker's death, NT Police stated that they had decided not to refer Rolfe to the public prosecutor for perjury charges over the Ryder arrest incident.
)[63] Some observers, such as Jamie McConnachie of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, saw the trial as an opportunity to provide redress for deaths in custody more generally.
[36] Following suggestions of political interference in the decision to prosecute, the Territory's Independent Commissioner Against Corruption confirmed that he was considering whether to launch an inquiry into the case.
[8][47] Over 1,000 people marched on the police station in Alice Springs calling for an independent investigation, with senior Warlpiri elder Harry Jakamarra Nelson addressing the crowd and stressing the peacefulness of their mission.
[66] At a meeting at which the court adjourned the case in June 2020, the cause had gathered support as part of the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd in the US.
[72] The family of Walker, who feel that the trial was unfair, are hoping that the inquest will deliver justice for their relative's death,[73] while the Northern Territory Police Association thinks that it will expose mismanagement, asserting that Rolfe was charged before investigations by senior officers had been completed.