A member of the specialist police team that was in Yuendumu during the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker has denied giving evidence that was designed to "help" the defence case in the murder trial of Constable Zachary Rolfe.
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 a charge of murder — as well as to alternative charges of manslaughter and a violent act causing death — over the shooting of Mr Walker during an attempted arrest in the remote community north-west of Alice Springs.
On Wednesday, prosecutors continued to question Constable James Kirstenfeldt, who was part of the Alice Springs-based immediate response team (IRT) that arrived in Yuendumu in the early evening of Saturday November 9, 2019.
The court has previously been told that four IRT members, including Constable Rolfe, were sent to the community that day to help with general police duties as well as Mr Walker's arrest.
After a short briefing at the Yuendumu police station, the court was told that Constable Rolfe and his partner located Mr Walker at a nearby home, where the teenager stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of medical scissors before the shots were fired.
Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland, SC, pressed Constable Kirstenfeldt on his evidence about an email sent to IRT members that afternoon by Yuendumu police sergeant Julie Frost, which outlined a plan to arrest Mr Walker early the following morning.
During his testimony yesterday, Constable James Kirstenfeldt told the court he did not recall seeing Sergeant Frost's email.
However, Mr Strickland told the court that Constable Kirstenfeldt gave a different account about his knowledge of the email during an interview with police investigators 12 days after the shooting.
Mr Strickland showed a video of Constable Kirstenfeldt telling investigators on November 21, 2019: "I'm pretty sure [Sergeant Frost] sent the plan we were going to do, or what we do anyway, which is just intel gather and snatch him in the early morning."
The crown prosecutor also noted that Constable Kirstenfeldt had told Constable Rolfe's committal hearing in September, 2020, that an email he had seen "said something about arresting [Kumanjayi Walker] at 5.30 in the morning".
On Wednesday, Constable Kirstenfeldt told the court the email he was referring to in the committal hearing was a separate message sent by another senior officer, earlier in the day of the shooting.
Mr Strickland: "Is your evidence that you don't recall being given an email by Julie Frost and you don't recall what its contents were — are those answers given to try and help Mr Rolfe?"
Constable Kirstenfeldt: "No, it's because I don't recall what was the exact content of that email."
Prosecutors have argued Constable Rolfe "ignored" the plan to arrest Mr Walker in the early morning, which Sergeant Frost previously told the court was a "safer" option.
Sergeant Frost also told the court that she told the IRT they should arrest Mr Walker if they came across him on Saturday evening.
Footage of moments after shooting shown in court
On Wednesday the court was also shown vision of the moments before and after the shooting, captured on Constable Kirstenfeldt's body-worn camera.
Constable Kirstenfeldt can be heard asking community members if they know where Mr Walker is.
Soon after, other officers can be heard over a radio saying they are entering another nearby home.
Moments later, three gunshots are heard, after which the footage shows Constable Kirstenfeldt running to his vehicle, pulling out a shotgun and cocking it.
Community members are heard yelling and crying in the background as Constable Kirstenfeldt runs towards the house where the shots were fired
At the door of the home, Constable Kirstenfeldt says he is going to call Sergeant Frost and says "we need more people here now" over the phone.
"We're at house 511, shots fired, offender's arrested, he's been shot," Constable Kirstenfeldt is heard saying.
"He is still alive at this stage … he's going to need some help."
As other officers begin to carry Mr Walker out of the house, Constable Kirstenfeldt says: "What are we doing, are we taking him to the station?"
After showing the footage, the Crown prosecutor noted in court that Constable Kirstenfeldt was "very active" in administering first aid, and had done his best to save Mr Walker's life.
Constable Kirstenfeldt responded: "We all had a go at first aid with [Mr Walker]."
The community health clinic was closed when Mr Walker was shot, with health staff having left the community earlier in the day after a spate of break-ins.
Separate tape from a body-worn camera taken prior to the shooting shows Constable Kirstenfeldt asking other community members about Mr Walker's whereabouts.
Under cross-examination from the defence, Constable Kirstenfeldt agreed that one of the reasons the IRT members then went immediately to the houses named was because they were concerned someone might alert Mr Walker that they were "hot on his trail".
The trial continues before Justice John Burns tomorrow.
