After a Northern Territory policeman shot an Indigenous teenager dead, a colleague warned him their fellow officers were snakes and to protect his back, an inquest has been told.
Constable Zachary Rolfe shot Kumanjayi Walker, 19, three times during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019.
An inquest into his death heard on Thursday that Const Rolfe held a "debrief" barbecue with beers for colleagues at his home two days after the incident.
During the evening, Constable James Kirstenfeldt, who was also part of the Yuendumu arrest team, texted Const Rolfe and warned him to stop talking about the shooting.
"Stop talking to these c***s," he said in a bid to help his friend.
"Don't trust these snake c***s ... They are covering their own arse.
"You left and and didn't get to see the aftermath of the arse covering," he wrote in another text in reference to Const Rolfe being evacuated from Yuendumu before the other four members of the arrest team.
"Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer ... Don't trust these snake f***s, lawyer told you not to comment," Const Kirstenfeldt said to remind his mate about the legal advice he had received.
Const Rolfe replied: "Got it bro".
Asked by counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer to explain the texts and who the people "covering their own arse" were, Const Kirstenfeldt said he didn't know.
But he agreed he texted Const Rolfe because he didn't want some of the people at the barbecue to know what he was saying and he was concerned for his friend.
"My sentiment of this is of being the lowest rank of the whole incident and all, that is the old expression of 'it rolls downhill'. It was probably going to be all the people of the lower ranks thrown under the bus," he said.
Dr Dwyer reminded Const Kirstenfeldt that the quality of his evidence would impact his ongoing credibility.
The inquest heard that some of the officers involved in the shooting, and senior and junior police from Const Rolfe's Alice Springs patrol group were at the barbecue.
Some of them allegedly discussed police use of force and their training when confronted by an offender with an edged weapon, as Mr Walker had been when he was shot.
It was allegedly decided that Const Rolfe had followed his training when he shot Mr Walker and would be back on the job soon.
Their conversation is among the 54 issues related to Mr Walker's death that the coroner is exploring amid concerns it may have contaminated Const Rolfe's evidence at his trial for murdering the Warlpiri man, for which he was found not guilty in March.
Const Kirstenfeldt agreed with Dr Dwyer the conversation had the potential to contaminate Const Rolfe's evidence.
"My focus on what was going to happen and what was going on was drinking beers," he said.
The hearing continues.
