The partner of murder-accused NT cop Zachary Rolfe at the time Rolfe shot Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest didn't use his own firearm because Mr Walker "wasn't trying to stab" him, a court has been told.
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In his opening address at the start of the murder trial, which is now in its third week in the Darwin Supreme Court, Constable Rolfe's lawyer, David Edwardson QC, told the court his client shot the Warlpiri teenager once in defence of himself, and then a second and third time in defence of his parter, Remote Sergeant Adam Eberl, in November 2019.
"It will be the defence case, contrary to the prosecution position, that he [Constable Rolfe] was trained to incapacitate this offender because the offender was armed with an edged blade which had already been used to stab Constable Rolfe, and Kumanjayi Walker was now using the same blade against Constable Eberl when the second and third shots were fired," Mr Edwardson said.
The two officers went to arrest Mr Walker in a house in the Central Australian community of Yuendumu, when he pulled out a pair of scissors and stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder shortly before being wrestled to the ground by Sergeant Eberl.
It was when Sergeant Eberl and Mr Walker were struggling on a mattress on the floor that Constable Rolfe fired the second and third shots.
READ MORE:
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- Wrap-up: Week two of the Zachary Rolfe murder trial
- Teen was still holding scissors after NT cop shot first time, court told
From the witness stand on Wednesday, Sergeant Eberl was asked by Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC why he did not draw his own pistol.
"Because his right arm [the one holding the scissors] was out, and it wasn't in front of me trying to stab me at that time," Sergeant Eberl said.
Constable Rolfe has pleaded not guilty to murder, as well as to alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in violent conduct causing death in relation to the second and third shots, with the first being seen as legally justified.
In body-worn camera footage of the incident shown to the jury, Sergeant Eberl is seen to strike Mr Walker in the face - in what he said was a distraction tactic - before grabbing him from behind in a move he described as similar to a "seatbelt hold".
He is also heard telling Mr Walker to "stop f---ing around" and that he will "f---ing smash" him after the second and third shots had been fired into Mr Walker's back.
Sergeant Eberl told the court he didn't realise at that time that Mr Walker had been shot and that he was still resisting.
When asked by Mr Strickland if Sergeant Eberl saw the scissors Mr Walker was holding, he said he saw "some sort of pointed object" but didn't know what it was.
"It was fairly dark so it could have been a stick or anything, but I knew it was something sharp," he said.
Sergeant Lee Bauwens, the sergeant responsible for training the Immediate Response Team (IRT) - the team of police officers Constable Rolfe was a part of when he was deployed to Yuendumu on the day of the shooting - also took the witness stand on Wednesday.
Sergeant Bauwens said the primary responsibility of the IRT was to "cordon and contain".
He said the only time the group is authorised to take "affirmative or tactical action" is in the case of an "immediate emergency action".
"If a life-threatening situation occurs ... we are authorised to enter, identify, challenge and perform an arrest of an offender," Sergeant Bauwens said.
When asked if the IRT was deployed on an "immediate emergency action" on the night of the shooting, Sergeant Bauwens said it wasn't.
"It was a general support deployment," he said.
