"The Northern Territory police’s second-highest serving officer has told an inquest he is “struggling to find a reason why” there was such a deviation from the “detailed” plan to arrest Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker on the day he was shot and killed by Constable Zachary Rolfe …

"The deputy commissioner of NT police, Murray Smalpage, was highly critical of the operation to arrest Walker conducted by Rolfe and the other members of the immediate response team …

"Smalpage said it was “not a unique event” for police officers to have to arrest somebody who may have a weapon or presented the risk of absconding.

"He said the obligation in light of that reality was for “members to undertake that task in terms of assessing the risk and working a way through to mitigating it”."

#KumanjayiWalker #DeathsInCustody #Warlpiri #Yuendumu

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/28/deputy-commissioner-highly-critical-of-botched-arrest-of-kumanjayi-walker-inquest-hears

Previous thread:
https://aus.social/@jimrhiz/109356795987901665

"Residents in a remote Indigenous community where a Northern Territory police officer shot dead a teenager during an attempted arrest say they are “disgusted” the officer still has a job with the force. ...

"They also called for the NT and federal governments to recognise the Warlpiri community’s cultural authority in Yuendumu – which the group said had been lost during the Howard government’s intervention."

#KumanjayiWalker #DeathsInCustody #Warlpiri #Yuendumu

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/15/how-come-hes-still-in-a-job-indigenous-elders-query-zachary-rolfes-ongoing-police-role-to-coroner

“"We ask that you focus on really listening: this means when you hear us, you do not challenge us in your mind, this is our story to listen to," Warlpiri Elder Robin Granites told the coroner in an opening address.”

#KumanjayiWalker #DeathsInCustody

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/coroner-elizabeth-armitage-visits-kumanjayi-walker-home/101652912