A woman in a remote community who feared for her life after her partner hit her vehicle with a bullet from a high-powered rifle was not helped by police for 14 hours because the Immediate Response Team had been disbanded after the shooting death of Kumanajayi Walker, while senior police thought local officers would “aggravate the situation”, the former officer in charge of the unit said in a previously suppressed statement to the Coroner.

The account of the potentially deadly domestic violence attack was contained in Sergeant Lee Bauwen’s statement to Coroner Elizabeth Armitage in April last year, during public hearings at the coronial inquiry into Mr Walker’s death, but was suppressed from reporting at the time.

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