Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe has rejected prosecution claims he "made up" details about the threat Yuendumu man Kumanjayi Walker posed when he fatally shot the 19-year-old during an attempted arrest.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Constable Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murder and two alternative charges over Mr Walker's death in the remote central Australian community in November 2019.
Prosecutors say Constable Rolfe's first shot — fired after Mr Walker stabbed him in the shoulder with a pair of medical scissors — was not unlawful, but the second and third shots fired seconds later were not legally justified.
During his third day on the stand in the NT Supreme Court, Constable Rolfe was challenged on his evidence about the struggle that broke out when he and fellow officer Constable Adam Eberl tried to place Mr Walker under arrest.
Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC put it to Constable Rolfe that he had "made up the evidence" that he saw Mr Walker stabbing Constable Eberl in the chest and neck when the pair fell to the ground after Constable Rolfe fired his first shot.
Mr Strickland: You have made up that you believe that you feared for Eberl's life when you fired [the second and third] shots.
Constable Rolfe: Incorrect.
Mr Strickland: You did not believe, did you, that you needed to fire the second and third shots to protect Eberl's life?
Constable Rolfe: I believe I needed to fire shots two and three to protect Eberl's life.
Mr Strickland: And you've made that evidence up to justify the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.
Constable Rolfe: Incorrect.
Constable Rolfe agreed the vision from his body-worn camera does not show Mr Walker stabbing Constable Eberl.
But he rejected Mr Strickland's argument that he only fired the second and third shots because he was confident Mr Walker was "effectively restrained" and therefore would not push Constable Eberl into the line of fire.
Constable Rolfe said he put his hand on Constable Eberl's back to ensure that didn't happen.
He also said trying to use his hands to help restrain Mr Walker in the circumstances would have gone against police training about edged weapons.
Rolfe denies comments showed he knew he 'had gone too far'
Mr Strickland also accused Constable Rolfe of lying in evidence given to the court on Thursday when he said he found Mr Walker's hand on his gun when he reached for it before the first shot.
The prosecutor said Constable Rolfe had not alerted Constable Eberl to it at the time and did not disclose it to other officers after the shooting that night.
“It's one of the most serious things that can happen to a police officer in a combat situation isn't it? Someone trying to grab your weapon?” Mr Strickland asked.
Constable Rolfe said: "Comparatively, in this situation, it was one of the least serious things that happened."
He also rejected Mr Strickland's claim that his comments to Constable Eberl immediately after the shooting showed that he "knew he had gone too far".
The vision played to the court shows Constable Rolfe telling his partner, who apparently did not realise that shots had been fired: "It's all good, he was stabbing me. It's all good, he's got scissors in his hand. He was stabbing me, he was stabbing you."
Constable Rolfe said his comment meant: "A violent offender had just been trying to murder two police officers, and he no longer was."
Under re-examination from his defence barrister, Constable Rolfe was asked to describe the position Constable Eberl was in at the time of the shooting, "in those seconds, not frame by frame".
Constable Rolfe told the court it was a "completely dynamic incident" and at no point did his partner achieve the mount position taught in police training.
"At no point was he in a static position of mount," he said.
The trial before the jury will resume on Tuesday after a break on Monday, with the prosecution and defence expected to make closing addresses next week.
