The family of an Indigenous man killed by a Northern Territory police officer have spoken about the fear and terror they felt the night he was fatally shot. 

Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died on November 9, 2019, after Constable Zachary Rolfe, 31, (a former Canberra resident) shot him three times in Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs.

Walker’s cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, told an inquest into his death in Alice Springs on Monday that the “wails of my family’s cries” after they learned he was dead still haunt her.

“Kumanjayi died … I’d imagine he was in pain. He was scared and he was robbed of comfort,” she said in reference to her cousin dying behind locked doors on the floor inside Yuendumu police station.

“His family gathered only metres away from him, yet we were all robbed of the opportunity to say goodbye.”

Ms Fernandez-Brown said her family were afraid and hurting in the hours after the shooting.

“In the dark we waited, pleaded for answers, begged for the smallest of information. We got nothing.”

Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves was also in Yuendumu the night Mr Walker was killed.

“There was a loud bang … of a gun,” he said.

“We had to gather all our children and protect them and later we went to the police station and … we asked the question: ‘Is he alive’?” he said.

“There was no answer … we were terrified (and) the whole community shattered … completely terrified.”

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage acknowledged the suffering Mr Walker’s family and the Walpri community had experienced.

“During this inquest I am inviting everyone to look a little deeper and listen a little longer because I think there is more to learn from and more we need to try and understand about this story,” she said in her opening.

The three-month hearing will explore the actions of police before and after Mr Walker was killed and how his death has affected his community.

It will also probe whether Mr Walker received adequate medical treatment after Const Rolfe fired into his torso from close range as the pair and another officer scuffled inside the man’s grandmother’s home.

Mr Walker had stabbed the officer in the moments before and threatened two other policemen with an axe three days earlier as he escaped being arrested and fled into the bush.

He died about an hour after Const Rolfe’s second shot ripped through his spleen, lung, liver and a kidney.

Const Rolfe was acquitted at trial in March of murdering Walker, igniting grief and anger in Yuendumu, with some community members decrying the justice system as racist.

Ms Armitage had planned to start the inquest in the community but the two-day sitting was cancelled last month amid rising tensions.

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer said at the time that the community was in a “state of high conflict” and members didn’t feel comfortable having outsiders, including journalists, spending time there.

The hearing continues.

By Aaron Bunch in Alice Springs

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