Shocking bodycam footage shows the moment a policeman who was stabbed while trying to make an arrest in a remote Indigenous community shot the attacker dead.
Kumanjayi (Arnold) Walker, 19, was gunned down in Yuendumu, 300km northwest of Alice Springs on November 9, 2019, after cutting off an ankle-monitoring bracelet and escaping from a court-ordered drug and alcohol treatment facility days earlier.
The video shows Northern Territory police officer Zach Rolfe, 30, and his partner question the teenager about his identity before Walker lunges at them both with the blade.
Three gunshots can then be heard 2.6 seconds apart as the former Afghanistan war veteran says repeatedly 'he's stabbing me'.
Shocking body-cam footage shows Northern Territory police officer Zach Rolfe, 30 (pictured), and his partner question the teenager about his identity before Walker lunges at them both with the blade
Mr Rolfe, who was the triggerman, was initially cleared of any wrongdoing in the wake of the incident but later charged with murder upon review and will face trial in the NT Supreme Court next year.
'He was a skinny young man and these police officers were stronger than him and they could have out-maneuvererd him,' Mr Walker's grandmother Bess Price told Seven News Spotlight investigation special Life and Death.
Mr Walker, who had a 13-page long criminal record for offences including theft, assault, break and enter and attacking on police, was ordered by the courts to undergo treatment at the CAAAPU drug and alcohol facility.
But on October 29 he cut off his tracking device and jumped the fence.
A warrant was issued for his arrest on November 5 and the following day two officers tracked him down.
They attempted to make an arrest but Mr Walker threatened them with an axe and fled into the bush.
