A young police officer accused of murdering an Aboriginal teenager during a failed outback arrest did not follow his senior commander’s plan, a jury has been told.

Constable Zachary Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the shooting murder of Kumanjayi Charles Arnold Walker in November 9, 2019.

The 19-year-old died after he was shot three times in the remote community of Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs.

Former Northern Territory Police Superintendent for the Southern Desert Division Jody Nobbs says he authorised a plan for Rolfe and three fellow officers to arrest Mr Walker at 5.30am the day after he died.

“More than endorsed, I articulated that was my expectation as the preferred course of action,” he told the NT Supreme Court on Monday.

Supt Nobbs said the team of four from Alice Springs were also ordered to assist local police with general duties and provide a highly visible presence.

Asked by Rolfe’s lawyer David Edwardson QC if that included arresting Mr Walker before the planned time if they learned where he was, he replied: “Not necessarily”.

“The 5am element is a tried and tested framework that is utilised in my 24 years’ experience with the police service in terms of risk mitigation in effecting an arrest with someone that has a violent antecedence,” he said.

“It tips the opportunities in our favour, it gives us effective time, the cover of darkness.

“It makes it easier for us to engage them, less opportunity for access to weapons, fleeing and again it just gives us the element of surprise.”

But Supt Nobbs agreed that plans had to be “dynamic and adaptable” in situations where an offender armed themselves.

The court has heard Rolfe and his fellow Alice Springs officers arrived at Yuendumu about 7pm on the day Mr Walker was shot. 

The officer-in-charge in the community, Sergeant Julie Frost, has said she gave them a printout of the same orders Supt Nobbs approved.

Less than 20 minutes later, Rolfe had shot Mr Walker as he resisted arrest while armed with a pair of scissors.

He died at 8.36pm from injuries sustained by one of those two shots, which “fatally damaged” his spleen, kidney and right lung.

The Crown has conceded Rolfe’s first shot, which was fired as Mr Walker wrestled in a standing position with Rolfe and his partner, Constable Adam Eberl, was justified.

But it says the fatal second and third shots in the Yuendumu home, 290km northwest of Alice Springs, went “too far”.

Rolfe and Const Eberl’s body-worn camera footage, which was played to the court, shows they were fired when Mr Walker was laying on the ground.

Const Eberl was on top of him, and Mr Walker’s arm and the hand holding the scissors were beneath him.

The confronting video shows the moment Rolfe fires three rapid shots in 3.1 seconds into Mr Walker’s body, with two shots from “point-blank” range.

Prosecutor Philip Strickland SC has said Mr Walker was “effectively restrained” at the time and Rolfe “intended to kill”.

Mr Edwardson says Rolfe was doing his job in “good faith” and defending himself and a colleague against a violent offender.

The court has also heard that Sgt Frost told Rolfe and his colleagues to “lock him up” when asked what action they should take if they found Mr Walker before 5.30am the following morning.

She also ordered them to “gather intelligence” about Mr Walker’s likely whereabouts, which was contrary to Supt Nobbs’ orders.

The trial continues.

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