EXCLUSIVE: Yuendumu officer-in-charge Sergeant Julie Frost failed to take control of the Immediate Response Team she requested and allowed them on an unsupervised “mission” to arrest Kumanjayi Walker in contravention of her own arrest plan in November 2019, a damning internal draft coronial report the Police Commissioner tried to suppress from the public, but obtained by the NT Independent, concluded.

The report also found she potentially put the lives of health staff in jeopardy in an “attempted deception” against the community of Yuendumu, and told Constable Zach Rolfe and other officers to turn off their body-worn camera about an hour after the death of Mr Walker, in breach of police procedures.

Confusion reigned the night of the fatal shooting around what the IRT was actually supposed to be doing in Yuendumu – the internal report that has never been made public before found – after Sgt Frost requested extra officers attend the remote community to help with general policing, but also to effect an arrest at 5am the next morning, in contrast to what the IRT were told by superior officers before they left Alice Springs.

Sgt Frost was later promoted after the incident by Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s executive team and has never been disciplined for her actions.

The internal report failed to mention that, as well as the fact that Sgt Frost’s partner Sgt Chris Hand had been involved in an incident three days before the shooting, where Mr Walker charged at police with an axe.

The report stated that Sgt Frost had negotiated with Mr Walker’s family for him to surrender after a funeral on the day he was shot and killed, November 9, 2019 – which had not finished by the time the IRT arrived – but she also said she did not believe he would hand himself in. Her backup plan was to arrest Walker at 5am the next morning while he was asleep, using the IRT and local police officer Constable Felix Alefaio.

However, the documents show her plan involved the IRT officers patrolling from about 11pm, to highlight a police presence in the town due to a spate of recent break-ins, followed by the arrest the next morning, which would also involve dog handler Senior Constable First Class Adam Donaldson.

Constable Alefaio was the only officer who knew what Mr Walker looked like and had previous dealings with him.

IRT officers Constable Rolfe and Constable James Kirstenfeldt arrived at Yuendumu at 6:33pm, and Constable First Class Anthony Hawkins and Constable First Class Anthony Eberl arrived at 6:56pm.

The draft coronial report said Sgt Frost began a briefing at 7pm and handed out a printed copy of her plan, and then the officers inexplicably left the station at 7:06pm.

Mr Walker was shot 15 minutes later at 7:21pm, after Constable Rolfe and Constable Eberl entered a house they believed Mr Walker was in.

There was no explanation from Sgt Frost or anyone else in the report as to why she let the officers go on duty four hours earlier than planned, especially considering they were supposed to be attempting to arrest Mr Walker so early the next morning.

“After arriving in Yuendumu Sergeant Frost handed the complete arrest plan for Walker (the ‘plan’) to the IRT members,” the report said.

“There was no mention in the plan of waiting until the family of Walker were afforded the opportunity to assist with Walker’s proposed surrender post funeral.

“The IRT members were instructed by Sergeant Frost that they were to commence general patrols of Yuendumu at 2300 hours (11:00pm) that night and, if Walker failed to surrender himself prior to then, they would attempt to locate and arrest him the following morning at 0500 hours (Sunday 10 November 2019).

“This would involve the assistance of a local police member Constable Felix Alefaio, who previously has extensive dealings with Walker and knew him well by sight.

“Despite Walker being regarded as a ‘high risk’ offender there was no plan to attempt to utilise a police negotiator.“

Mr Walker was shot three times by Constable Rolfe, after he stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with surgical scissors and struggled on the floor with Constable Eberl during the attempted arrest.

Constable Rolfe was charged with murder four days after the shooting, which police investigators expressed grave concerns about given that the brief of evidence was not finished, also questioning the early and pressing involvement of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted of murder, manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death by a Supreme Court jury in March this year.

Weeks later, the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches announced an investigation into allegations of political interference in the charging of Constable Rolfe, a claim which has been denied by Mr Chalker and then-chief minister Michael Gunner. The investigation is ongoing.

The coronial draft report is understood to be a late draft of a report by Superintendent Scott Pollock into the death of Mr Walker, but it comes with an annotation that Commander David Proctor was later officially delegated to the role of officer in charge of the coronial investigation, controversially replacing Supt Pollock in August 2020.

Mixed messages confused the mission, Rolfe in ‘ambiguous environment’: Report

The report said the “evolving situation” at Yuendumu was well summarised by Professor Alexander McFarlane AO, in his report for operation “Chartwell (sic) re: Constable Zachary Rolfe”.

“It also appears that at the briefing held by Sergeant Frost after the IRT members had arrived at Yuendumu, there had been no direct consensus reached as to their individual roles…this was an ambiguous situation where, despite the high level of risk associated with attempting an arrest of Mr Walker, no strategy appears to have been discussed for how this was to occur,” he is quoted as having written.

“Constable Rolfe was deployed into an ambiguous environment that had little structure and direction with no apparent supervisor or team leader defined.

“The IRT members, who were all of rank junior to Sergeant Frost clearly intended to proceed with their own ‘arrest’ agenda despite being told that an agreement had been set in place between Sergeant Frost and Walker’s family….

“That funeral was still in progress when the IRT and the DOU [dog operations unit] member left the station in search of Walker. Despite his availability the IRT did not consider or attempt to take Constable Alefaio with them.”

The report said Sgt Frost told internal investigators that her interactions with the IRT members were as follows:

“….The members really wanted to take over the conversation… and it was sort of um kind of said to me that you know, ‘This is how we do it …This is what we do when we come to job, this is how,’ I got the impression that they didn’t really want me to tell them how to do their job…,” she is quoted as saying in the report.

The report continues that, “it must be highlighted that the IRT members were not expecting to receive any orders from Sergeant Frost when they arrived in Yuendumu.

“They were aware of the ‘mission’ assigned to them by Acting Sergeant McCormack [Superintendent of Alice Springs and on that day responsible for the IRT] and remained focussed on quickly locating and arresting Walker,” the report said.

“Despite a suggestion by Sergeant Frost that the IRT members left the station on an intelligence gathering exercise it was clear they were going to attempt to locate and arrest Walker.”

The report said that between the four members, no specific IRT ‘team leader’ was appointed – with Sgt Frost not suggesting a leader – and no briefing documents or written risk assessment on Mr Walker had been prepared by the time they departed Alice Springs.

According to Constable James Kirstenfeldt they were not there as the IRT.

“‘…Like I said we weren’t there as IRT, we were there as a force multiplier,” he told investigators in the report.

It appears he believed they were there to significantly increase the policing ability of the Yuendumu police force, adding to the confusion over what the mission was and why the IRT were deployed in the first place without an operational plan.

The report went on to say that Sgt McCormack, who had never before completed an operations order, compiled some details around the arrest target and then forwarded the information by email to Sergeant Frost at 4:24pm, which Sgt Frost added detail to and then emailed the final plan to the in–transit IRT members and various supervisors at 4:59pm.

The report did not explain whether Sgt Frost specifically corrected the idea that their mission was to arrest Walker, in writing or in the verbal briefing.

Instead of adhering to the operations order that had been prepared by Sergeant Frost, the report said, the IRT members disregarded the plan in preference to completing the “mission” as assigned to them by the stand–in officer in charge of the IRT Sgt McCormack, a mission that was an immediate attempt to locate and arrest Mr Walker within the Yuendumu community.

The report reproduced an interview with Constable First Class Hawkings and a police investigator after the shooting.

“INVESTIGATOR: And how long after you [sic] arrival did that, this brief occur?

“HAWKINGS: Pretty much immediately upon our arrival…Um, it was, ‘let’s get in there and let’s pretty much get out here and locate him…I think the idea was to get back to the Station, hopefully I, identify him, locate him quickly and then return back to the station and come back to Alice Springs.”

Constable First Class Hawkings admitted that Sgt Frost was not party to another briefing held between the lRT members and dog unit member in Yuendumu.

“Despite a suggestion by Sergeant Frost that the IRT members left the station on an intelligence gathering exercise it was clear they were going to attempt to locate and arrest Walker,” the report said.

The report noted that during her evidence at the Zach Rolfe committal hearing in 2020, Sgt Frost had not identified issues in her assessment of the risk Mr Walker posed. She confirmed she wanted Walker arrested early on Sunday morning as it was generally, “a safer time for a high–risk arrest”, but the reasons for that could not be backed up by internal documents.

Frost tells Rolfe and others to turn off body-worn camera

The report states that following the shooting of Mr Walker, there were at least seven occasions at Yuendumu Police Station noted where conversations between police officers related to turning off their body-worn vision.

The first instance given is at 8:27pm when Constable Rolfe is sitting in the muster room when Sgt Frost says to him, “are you? are you?” as she indicates towards her chest.

“She then say [sic] ‘turn it off’. Rolfe then turns the camera off,” the report stated.

Earlier, at 8:11pm, the report says, Constable Hawkings left the cell and entered the muster room where Constable Rolfe is sitting on a chair and Sgt Frost is on the phone. Sgt Frost gets off the phone, walks towards Hawkings and says, “Do you want to turn it off? as she points at Hawkings’ chest”.

Then at 8:43pm the report says constables Donaldson, Kirstenfeldt and Rolfe are standing near Sgt Frost in the police station when Constable Eberl (possibly) enters the back door, and one of the members says in a quiet voice, “camera has got to be off”.

The report said that prior to the Yuendumu shooting the policy advice was to ensure the BWV was turned on.

Currently, the report said, the policy states: “BWV will be used in any circumstance where it may assist in providing a record of evidence in respect of the investigation of any offence or suspected offence”.

“BWV may also be used at the member’s discretion on any occasion when the member thinks a recording may be of evidential value in the future and to make a recording is proportionate and lawful in the circumstances (for example if you foresee a complaint arising out of police actions or interactions)….

“It is better to have recorded the footage and not need it, than not to have recorded anything and subsequently find that the opportunity to record evidence was missed.

“The decision to stop recording rests with the member. However, members should be satisfied that, in making the decision to stop recording, the risk of not capturing evidential material is minimised.”

Since the Yuendumu shooting, policy advice has been amended to advise that if a member has not activated their BWV, or turned the device off, the member must justify their reasons and must record that reason in their notebook, and make notation on internal database PROMIS.

Prior to any temporary suspension of recording, the member is to make a verbal announcement explaining the reason for the suspension and if applicable, obtain the other person’s consent on the footage prior to suspending the recording.

“Regardless of policy advice, the police officers at Yuendumu on the night of 9 November 2019 were aware of the critical issues they faced following the shooting and death of Walker,” the report said.

“The BWV worn by members should have left to record all involvements and conversations. The CCTV at Yuendumu Police Station did not have an audio recording capability.“

Frost endangered the life of Health staff; Report

The report said a group of community members assembled at the front of the police station while police were inside with Mr Walker, with the glass at the front covered over, and the lights off to appear that no one was there.

“Community members began to throw rocks on the roof of the police station,” the report said.

“The situation outside the police station remained quite volatile to the extent that at one stage the police members inside the Yuendumu Police Station were given the order to evacuate by Superintendent Nobbs.”

While she was waiting for the arrival of police re–enforcements from Alice Springs, the report said Sgt Frost decided she would send the ambulance and police vehicles to the Yuendumu airstrip to collect incoming police, as shown in her statement to investigators.

“So I came up with the plan, um, that there will be a police car, then we’ll use the ambulance ladies in the ambulance and then another police car to ensure the ambulance ladies safety and we’II go in convoy under the pretense, of um, going out there to pick up medical staff which um… which is a decision we made for the safety of the members and that’s what we did..,” she is quoted in the report as saying.

The reasons for why Sgt Frost requested health staff to drive their ambulance to the airstrip as a decoy in preference to using her own resources was unknown.

“Sergeant Frost was aware that a large hostile crowd was gathered outside the police station and that at various times rocks were thrown onto the roof of the police station,” the report said.

“The short journey to the airstrip required the vehicles to pass by the crowd and it was a distinct possibility that the crowd would turn on those travelling in the vehicles at a time when they were still (impatiently) awaiting information in relation to the deceased, remaining unaware that he had in fact passed.

“As the vehicles returned to the police station they were pelted with rocks. Nurse, Lorraine Walcott, received facial lacerations to her head as a result of a rock shattering the vehicle window and striking her in the head.

“The decision to attempt to deceive the Yuendumu community into believing the ambulance was conveying Walker to the airstrip was inappropriate as was the decision to use health staff in the attempted deception.“

The report said there was no investigation to identify the perpetrators behind the assault on the health staff.

The coronial inquiry into the death of Kumanjayi Walker and the police response begins on Monday.