Murder-accused NT cop Zachary Rolfe and his police partner went "completely against their training" in the way they approached Aboriginal teen Kumanjayi Walker on the night of his fatal shooting, a court has been told.
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Constable Rolfe has pleaded not guilty to murder, as well as two alternative lesser charges, over an incident when he shot Mr Walker three times in the torso during an attempted arrest in the Central Australian community of Yuendumu in November 2019.
The second and third shots are the subject of the charges, with the first being seen as legally justified.
A former officer in charge of the NT Police operation safety section, Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Barram, took the witness stand in the Darwin Supreme Court on Monday as Constable Rolfe's murder trial began its fourth week.
He said he had reviewed body worn-camera footage from Constable Rolfe and his colleagues of the events leading up to Mr Walker's shooting in order to provide an opinion for the court.
READ MORE:
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One piece of footage shows Constable Rolfe and another officer enter the house, despite a child telling one of them from inside that Mr Walker was not there.
"I don't think it was necessary, they were tasked to gather intel about where Mr Walker might have spent the night. They'd pretty much gained that before they'd gone into the house ... from the child," Senior Sergeant Barram said.
"And if you're then going to do a search of the house like that, you would certainly consider getting the child out of the house."
The footage also shows Constable Rolfe allegedly disengaging two of the three safety devices on his gun as he searched the house, which Senior Sergeant Barram said was not appropriate in the circumstances.
On information from a community member, the officers then travel to Mr Walker's grandmother's house. Footage shows officers Rolfe and Eberl walking into the house and approaching Mr Walker, asking him to stand against a wall and questioning him about his identity.
Senior Sergeant Barram said that "completely went against our training", especially as Mr Walker was considered to be a "high-risk" arrest target as he ran at police with an axe three days earlier.
"If you've got someone that you even suspect may be armed, first thing you're going to want to do is see their hands," he said.
"So I don't know why they persisted with going in. They could have done that from the door and said show me your hands, immediately.
"If they suspected that it's Mr Walker, and he's a high-risk offender ... [who] previously has armed himself, why would you put yourself in such close proximity to him?"
Mr Walker pulled out a pair of scissors and stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder when the officers moved to arrest him, prompting Constable Rolfe to fire the first of the three shots.
It was after Mr Walker had been wrestled to the ground by Sergeant Eberl that the second and third shots were fired.
The trial had previously heard from the other police officers in Yuendumu on that night that there were no discussions or plans made about what they would do if they found Mr Walker. Senior Sergeant Barram said this also went against police training.
Senior Sergeant Barram inspected Constable Rolfe's accoutrement belt containing the weapons he had on his person at the time of the shooting and found Constable Rolfe's taser had a flat battery.
"It appeared that the safety switch was in the on position, or had been left in the on position," he told the court.
Senior Sergeant Barram's evidence will continue on Tuesday.
