Zachary Rolfe’s shocking NT officer past emerges after acquittal from murdering Indigenous teen

An officer who was acquitted of murdering an Indigenous teenager boasted about not having to follow rules in the ‘Wild West’ Northern Territory – as shocking details of his past emerge. 

Constable Zachary Rolfe was found not guilty of murder last week after he shot Kumanjayi Walker three times in Alice Springs in November 2019.

Suppression orders in place during the trial have since been lifted by the court revealing fresh details about Constable Rolfe’s time as a police officer.

Constable Rolfe had been accused of previously using excessive force in previous arrests as text messages emerge showing the police officer boasting about doing ‘cowboy stuff’, while bodycam footage captured a brutal arrest in 2018. 

Constable Zachary Rolfe was found not guilty of murder last week after he shot Kumanjayi Walker three times in Alice Springs in November 2019

Constable Rolfe had been accused of previously using excessive force as text messages emerge showing the police officer boasting about doing ‘cowboy stuff’ while bodycam footage captured a brutal arrest in 2018 (pictured, mock-up of texts sent to military friend)

A sworn statement from Constable Rolfe’s ex-girlfriend claimed he asked a colleague to scratch his face so he could justify the alleged use of excessive force during the arrest. 

‘The Crown alleges that the use of force was excessive because it was neither reasonable nor necessary,’ Justice John Burns said in his pre-trial ruling. 

Bodycam footage filmed Constable Rolfe taking part in the arrest of Malcolm Ryder.

Prosecutors alleged Constable Rolfe ‘punched’ Mr Ryder ‘to his head, grabbed his hair and slung his head to the ground’. 

‘It further alleges that the accused’s use of force resulted in Ryder being rendered unconscious and sustaining a laceration to his right forehead requiring 13 sutures and a laceration to his left forehead requiring three sutures,’ Justice Burns said. 

The Northern Territory Supreme Court heard a magistrate had found Constable Rolfe ‘deliberately assaulted’ Mr Ryder before he ‘lied in evidence’. 

Constable Rolfe had also sent text messages to an army friend where he referred to Alice Springs as a ‘sh**hole’ and compared it to the ‘Wild West’ that had ‘f*** all rules’.

‘Alice Springs sucks ha ha,’ he wrote. ‘The good thing is it’s like the Wild West and f*** all the rules in the job really… but it’s a sh** hole. Good to start here coz of the volume of work but will be good to leave.’

Another message read: ‘We have this small team in Alice, IRT, immediate response team. We’re not full time, just get called up from Gd’s for high risk jobs, its a sweet gig, just get to do cowboy stuff with no rules.’ 

Constable Rolfe was accused of using excessive force in more arrests including allegedly slamming a person’s head against a rock, karate chopping another one to the ground and slamming a different person against a wall.  

Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC drew parallels between the arrests to the shooting death of Mr Walker.

Bodycam footage filmed Constable Rolfe taking part in the arrest of Malcolm Ryder

Prosecutors alleged Constable Rolfe ‘punched’ Mr Ryder ‘to his head, grabbed his hair and slung his head to the ground’ (pictured, man is arrested at the house in 2018)

‘It further alleges that the accused’s use of force resulted in Ryder being rendered unconscious and sustaining a laceration to his right forehead requiring 13 sutures and a laceration to his left forehead requiring three sutures,’ Justice Burns said

‘In all circumstances, the act of the accused caused injury or significant injury to the complainant, and in all circumstances, according to the expert who will be called by the crown, the force that he used was unnecessary,’ he said. 

Justice Burns ruled certain details of Rolfe’s past as a police officer would not be admitted during his trial – meaning the 12 men and women on the jury were not aware of any of the previous complaints made against him.

He stated the evidence did not have ‘significant probative value’ and could lead to ‘the danger of prejudice to the accused’.

Justice Burns said the incidents ‘taken at their highest, strongly support a tendency on the part of the accused to make a false statement or do some other act seeking to justify the use of excessive force’. 

Constable Rolfe claimed all complaints against him had been investigated before they were cleared. 

‘Every one of those has been investigated, and I’ve been cleared,’ he told The Australian. 

Zachary Rolfe (pictured) leaves the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin on  Thursday, March 10, 2022

Kumanjayi Walker (left) and his girlfriend Rickisha Robertson (right). Mr Walker was killed by police in the NT in 2019

‘That force was never excessive – it was relative to the situation on the day.’ 

Outside the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, Mr Walker’s cousin Samara Fernandez Brown said she did not believe justice had been served after Constable Rolfe was found not guilty.

‘We are all in so much pain, particularly our young men. They have struggled. They have been scared but still, they respected this process and so has our whole community,’ she said.

‘We have been respectful … but still we have been let down.’  

Constable Rolfe said the jury had made ‘the right decision’, while supporters said he should never have faced court.

‘A lot of people are hurting today, Kumanjayi’s family and his community, and it did not need to get to this point, so I am going to leave this space for them,’ he said.

Ms Brown said the jury’s verdict was not the end of her community’s fight for Mr Walker and justice.

‘We are deeply disappointed and although we’ve been given a trial I cannot honestly say that it has been fair,’ she said.