The police officer at the centre of a high-profile murder trial in the Northern Territory has been called to the stand by his own defence team.
An accused person has no obligation to give evidence in their own trial, and a decision to do so only occurs after the crown has closed its case.
After calling almost forty witnesses and tendering more than a 100 exhibits of evidence, that occurred in the Darwin Supreme Court today, with prosecutor Philip Strickland SC announcing to the court, "That is the Crown case."
In a move that will likely surprise some observers, defence barrister David Edwardson rose and called the 30-year-old accused Constable Zachary Rolfe to give evidence in his own defence.
Constable Rolfe is charged with murder, and lesser alternative charges, for the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker during a failed arrest in November 2019.
The 19-year-old died from his injuries after being shot three times by the police officer.
Only the second and third shots are under examination in the trial, the first was deemed reasonable use of force against the Warlpiri man.
Constable Rolfe told the jury he grew up in Canberra, and joined the Australian Defence Force after leaving high school, he was a soldier for five years and served in Afghanistan in 2014 before he left the army in "mid-2015"
"I returned to Canberra for approximately 10 months. Did some odd jobs and then joined the Northern Territory Police Force - I moved to Darwin in May 2016 and started my training".
Defence barrister David Edwardson questioned his client on all aspects of his police training, including the use of lethal force and Constable Rolfe's interpretation of the term "knife equals gun".
"The way I was trained, if someone is threatening us with an edged weapon our response was to go for our firearm, unless that was impossible." Constable Rolfe said.
Mr Edwardson then asked "Were you given any instruction as to if you do draw your firearm, as to pulling the trigger?"
"If you pull your firearm, if you draw your firearm, you only draw your firearm if you’re prepared to pull the trigger," Constable Rolfe said.
The defence continued,"Did you receive any training as to where you should fire at an offender, who’s armed with an edged weapon?'
"We’re always taught centre of seen mass. Whatever your target is, generally it is a full human, centre of mass would then be the torso."
The court heard that in 2017 Constable Rolfe was accepted into the Immediate Response Team. Rolfe described that it was in his capacity as an IRT member that he and several others were deployed to the community of Yuendumu on the night of the shooting.
Mr Edwardson asked him about the two week training program for IRT members and the unit's main policing role.
"IRT is a semi-tactical unit - the main purpose is to deal with high-risk events and cordon and contain that event if possible until TRG arrives."
The day before the IRT was deployed to Yuendumu, Constable Rolfe described how he and other officers watched the body-worn camera vision of the so-called 'axe incident', when Kumanjayi Walker threatened two Yuendumu officers three days before he was shot.
"[That was] to make them aware of the incident that had occurred, and to disseminate the information that there is an extremely violent individual that they may come in contact with in Alice Springs," Rolfe explained.
In this body-cam vision released by the court, Kumanjayi Walker can be seen wielding an axe in his right hand as he pushes past an officer. Source: Supplied: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
"And just to be aware of his propensity for violence."
Rolfe also detailed discussing his deployment to Yuendumu with acting head of the IRT Shane McCormack.
"I spoke to Shane McCormack and asked him to confirm... what the mission was and he informed me it was to arrest Kumanjayi."
Before leaving the Alice Springs Police Station from Yuendumu on November 9, Constable Rolfe said he spoke to the other IRT members.
"I informed the members that... our task was to travel to Yuendumu to arrest Kumanjayi Walker for the reasons of the axe incident on Wednesday night."
Constable Rolfe is expected to detail his version of events on the night of the fatal shooting when the trial resumes, before the prosecution get the chance to cross examine the accused.
