Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage today returns to the bench in the Alice Springs Local Court for two additional weeks of evidence, as her long-running inquest into the death-in-custody of Kumanjayi Walker continues.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of a person who has died, used with the permission of the family.
Mr Walker died in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, after he was shot three times by NT Police constable Zachary Rolfe in November 2019.
Constable Rolfe, and a handful of colleagues, were attempting to arrest Mr Walker for breaching a court order and assaulting police, when he stabbed the officer in the shoulder with a pair of scissors.
Days later, Constable Rolfe was charged with Mr Walker's murder, but in early 2022, a Supreme Court jury found him not guilty of murder, manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.
Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage opened a coronial inquest into the death in September last year, hearing three months of evidence from around 80 witnesses as she probed everything from the culture of the NT Police to the services available to young people in Yuendumu.
What will the coroner hear this time?
Constable Zachary Rolfe was originally scheduled to give evidence during this block of hearings, but the officer's lawyers last month filed an appeal of a Supreme Court decision which compelled Constable Rolfe to take the stand.
Invoking a legal claim against self-incrimination, Constable Rolfe will argue, when the Court of Appeal sits on April 11, that he should not be forced to answer questions which could lead to disciplinary action within the police force.
Pending the appeal, the officer is currently expected to front the inquest in late July.
Over the next two weeks, around 15 witnesses are scheduled to give evidence to the coroner, including the second highest-ranking police officer in the Northern Territory, Deputy Police Commissioner Murray Smalpage.
Other police officers, representatives from Territory Families and other departments also among the witnesses scheduled.
This block of hearings will wrap up on Friday, March 10, before the inquest returns in July for further evidence.
