Officer who shot local teen was 'racist'

SYDNEY: An Australian police officer who fatally shot an indigenous teenager during an attempted arrest in 2019 was racist and worked in an environment “with hallmarks of institutional racism”, a coroner has found.

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The killing of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker by then-Police Constable Zachary Rolfe in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu sparked protests and renewed scrutiny of Australia’s treatment of its First Nations people.

Mr Rolfe, who had been stabbed by Walker in the shoulder with a pair of scissors during the confrontation, argued his actions were in self defence and was cleared of murder and manslaughter charges by a jury in March 2022.

A mandatory coronial inquest into Walker's death in custody began six months later and stretched for more than three years.