Aboriginal man Kumanjayi Walker was laughing at a family photo with his mother in the minutes before Constable Zachary Rolfe fatally shot him, a court has heard.

The 19-year-old died after Rolfe, 30, shot him three times during a failed arrest in Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs on November 9, 2019.

Rolfe is fighting a murder charge over the second and third shots, which prosecutors say went “too far” because Mr Walker was “effectively restrained” by another officer.

The 19-year-old’s mother Leanne Oldfield says she and Mr Walker were standing outside the house where he was shot just before Rolfe arrived.

“He was next to me and my partner Nathan Coulthard,” she told the Supreme Court in Darwin on Thursday.

“He was laughing at the photo (of) two cousins and an aunty.”

The family had spent the day at a much-loved uncle’s funeral.

Ms Oldfield said her son then went inside the home.

“As soon as he went inside I saw the police come through the gate,” she said.

“They were walking really quickly. I see the guns.”

Rolfe’s body-worn camera footage recorded the moment he approached the house and spoke to Ms Oldfield, who was still standing outside the house.

“Hey missus,” he said to her in a polite and friendly tone.

“Can we go check inside?”

Rolfe fired his first shot just over a minute later after he and Constable Adam Eberl came across Mr Walker in an unlit room.

The trio scuffled and Mr Walker stabbed Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of scissors as the officers attempted to take him into custody.

Rolfe fired his second and third shots when Constable Eberl was on top of the 19-year-old and the scissors were pinned under him.

Louanna Williams said Mr Walker came to her in the days before he was shot and said he wanted to surrender to her cousin, Aboriginal community police officer Derek Williams, after the funeral.

“He knew he was in trouble,” she said.

“He was comfortable with Derek arresting him.”

The court has heard that Warlpiri elder and Yuendumu community leader Eddie Robertson had also spoken to Mr Walker and he had agreed to hand himself in to police the following day.

Mr Robertson – who was the grandfather of Mr Walker’s then partner Rakeisha – had also spoken to the officer-in-charge at the Yuendumu police station, Sergeant Julie Frost.

The pair had agreed Mr Walker would be arrested after the funeral which was initially planned for November 8 but was moved to November 9.

Police had escalated the order to arrest Mr Walker after he threatened two other policemen with an axe on November 6.

Those officers had been trying to arrest the 19-year-old for breaching a court order when he removed his electronic monitoring device and fled an Alice Springs alcohol rehabilitation clinic about a week earlier.

Three days later, Rolfe and three fellow response team members were ordered to arrest Mr Walker early in the morning on November 10 but they failed to follow the plan.

About 45 minutes after arriving in the community of about 800, they found Mr Walker.

He died from injuries sustained from either the second or third shots, which the Crown says were not legally justified.

The trial continues.

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