A warning, this next story contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died. Former Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe is returning to the witness box, for a third day of questioning, over the 2019 shooting death of a man in a remote Aboriginal community.
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00:00 Former Constable Zachary Rolfe is back in the witness box today for a third day of questioning
00:07 over the shooting death of Kumunjai Walker in November 2019.
00:11 He's now answering questions directly related to the moments and the days before the fatal
00:16 shooting.
00:17 It's his third day of examination in chief, which has been tense and explosive as the
00:22 former officer is asked to explain his use of force on the job and racial slurs in text
00:28 messages.
00:29 As the court has also heard, he asked Ben Robert Smith for advice on work outside the
00:34 police force and contacts for international security jobs about six months before Mr Walker
00:39 died.
00:41 Questions have now turned to the days before the shooting in Yundamu.
00:44 The court hearing, Zachary Rolfe was critical of two remote police officers who tried to
00:49 arrest Walker two days before Mr Rolfe and his specialist team deployed to Yundamu.
00:55 During that attempted arrest, Mr Walker raised an axe towards the local police officers and
01:00 they retreated.
01:01 Mr Rolfe, who was acquitted of all charges related to the shooting after a trial in 2022,
01:08 told the coroner he knows he's not a use of force expert, but that there were endless
01:14 other options available to those police officers on the day.
01:18 He's expected to continue answering questions until Friday afternoon.
01:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]