A senior NT police officer has told coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker he has “no excuse” for using a racial slur in a text message to former police officer Zachary Rolfe. it comes as the inquiry into the 2019 police shooting in Yuendumu resumed today for its final seven days of evidence.
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00:00 More than four years since 19-year-old Kunjai Walker was shot in the remote Aboriginal community
00:06 of Yundamu by former NT Police Constable Zachary Rolfe, the Northern Territory coroner has
00:11 opened what's scheduled to be the final leg of her marathon coronial inquest into the
00:17 police shooting.
00:18 Sergeant Lee Bowens was the first in the witness box, rejecting allegations he freely used
00:23 racist language or swept Mr Rolfe's unjustified use of force under the carpet.
00:29 Unless my name is on a use of force that you can present to me and I can comment on, I'd
00:34 say it's completely untrue.
00:36 The officer did accept he used a racial slur in a text message to Zachary Rolfe four months
00:42 before the shooting.
00:43 "These bush******* aren't used to people going after them," he wrote, telling The
00:47 Coroner today he had no excuse for it and couldn't remember sending the message.
00:53 Sergeant Bowens was the officer in charge of the Specialist Immediate Response Team
00:57 which travelled to Yundamu on the night Mr Walker was killed.
01:00 He was on leave at the time and had no involvement in the deployment.
01:04 Nor was he aware, he told The Coroner, that Zachary Rolfe had been under investigation
01:08 by the Crime Command.
01:10 The inquest began back in September of 2022 for what was initially scheduled to be three
01:16 months of hearings.
01:18 It's now stretched to almost 18 months after a string of largely unsuccessful appeals and
01:24 legal arguments were mounted by Mr Rolfe and others in an attempt to narrow the very broad
01:29 scope of inquiry The Coroner has undertaken.
01:33 Mr Rolfe, who was acquitted of all charges related to the shooting, is expected to answer
01:37 questions from Monday.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]