By Lloyd Jones in Darwin

They were shots heard around Australia and beyond, leaving a young Aboriginal man dead and leading to the exposure of ingrained police racism.

Kumanjayi Walker died after being shot three times at close range by then-constable Zachary Rolfe during a botched arrest at a home in the Northern Territory community of Yuendumu in November 2019.

Wielding a pair of scissors, the 19-year-old was resisting being handcuffed by officers and at one stage, stabbed the constable in the neck.

On Monday, NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage is set to announce her findings into the death of the Warlpiri-Luritja man.

In March 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted Mr Rolfe, then aged 30, of murdering Mr Walker.

Judge Armitage in November closed Australia’s longest-running inquest to consider more than 5000 pages of transcripts and 1990 pages of written submissions.

She had been due to deliver her findings on June 10 in the remote desert community of Yuendumu.

But that was postponed until July 7 following the death of another young Yuendumu man in police custody in Alice Springs.

Kumanjayi White, 24, died on May 27 shortly after being forcibly restrained by two plain-clothes police officers at a supermarket where he allegedly assaulted a security officer who accused him of shoplifting.

His death prompted the Yuendumu community to seek a delay of the Kumanjayi Walker findings as they went through another time of “sorry business”.

Judge Armitage’s inquest heard damning evidence against Mr Rolfe.

This included counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer arguing that his character should be considered as a direct cause of death.

“Mr Rolfe was a man whose ego was wrapped up in his use of force and who took pride in and derived a sense of worth from expressing his dominance over others,” she said.

“They were generally Aboriginal men and he expressed that dominance with the use of force.”

Counsel for NT Police Ian Freckelton KC told the inquest “it is absolutely undeniable that Mr Rolfe is a racist” based on his derogatory text messages about indigenous people.

“People who talk about ‘loser locals, coons, Neanderthals’ … on the basis of their Aboriginality, are racists and it’s important to call it as it is.”

Text messages between Mr Rolfe and other officers revealed a string of racist slurs and the normalisation of using excessive force against Aboriginal people.

But Dr Freckelton maintained the force was not inherently racist.

He and Mr Rolfe’s lawyer, Luke Officer, told the coroner racism could not be considered under the Coroner’s Act, which only permits her to investigate the cause of death.

“There’s no need to inquire into whether racism played a part … there is no direct evidence of that. It has no relevance to cause of death,” Mr Officer said.

Rolfe’s ‘fascination with violence’

But police psychologist Bruce Van Heaften said Mr Rolfe’s actions were influenced by his attitudes including “sexism, contempt for female police, contempt for some superiors, contempt for bush cops and racism”.

The inquest heard of Mr Rolfe’s “fascination with violence” including at least four previous uses of excessive force.

It also heard Mr Walker bled from his wounds on the cement floor of a police cell before his body was secretly removed from Yuendumu.

His family gathered outside the station all night, unaware he was not inside, and had died.

Only the next morning were they told and only after more police officers with rifles descended upon the community to deter unrest.

In a bizarre twist during the inquest, Mr Rolfe tendered award certificates, attempting to prove the NT police force’s ingrained culture of racism.

Probe into racism within the force

That triggered a probe in early 2024 by the NT corruption watchdog into racism within the force’s elite tactical response unit.

The investigators delivered no adverse findings despite uncovering evidence of race-based discrimination, including racist police award certificates issued between 2007 and 2015.

One was entitled “2007 Shit BBQ Award” and adorned with the words “the most coon like BBQ ever!!”

Another was called the “2007 Noogadah Award” and included the words “utmost level of Aboriginality while being an elite member of the TRS”.

The anti-corruption commissioner’s report said a further investigation into racism within the force wasn’t necessary because the police commissioner had apologised and the agency was taking steps to address racism.

Judge Armitage’s inquest findings will be closely watched nationwide and could set a precedent for other coronial inquests around Australia.

But the NT’s Country Liberal Party government is busy rolling out a $1.5 billion tough-on-crime drive and is unlikely to endorse many of her recommendations to prevent further deaths in custody.