Police needed 'patience' in Walker arrest

Police should have shown more patience and talked with Indigenous leaders to help secure the arrest of Kumanjayi Walker, an inquest into the teenager's shooting death has been told.

Elizabeth Katakarinja, a long-time resident at Yuendumu, where Mr Walker was shot and killed by Constable Zachary Rolfe in 2019, said a better way to take the teenager into custody would have been to talk to his family and elders.

They could have also sought help from the night patrol, a group of locals who helped victims of domestic violence and other incidents and also sought to intervene to head off problems, often involving young people in the community.

By the time of the shooting, Ms Katakarinja had worked with the night patrol for about 30 years.

"None of the police were patient at all. I've seen it myself," Ms Katakarinja told Coroner Elisabeth Armitage on Monday.

"They were just going in and arresting people. They never used to talk to us. They never respected night patrol."

However, in her statement, Ms Katakarinja said police were working better with the local community since Mr Walker's shooting and were more aware of not using weapons such as Tasers or pepper spray.

In other evidence on Monday, Indigenous man Bruno Wilson said Yuendumu locals were in shock and angry after the shooting.

Mr Wilson said he heard the shots in the remote Indigenous community, but did not know immediately that the 19-year-old had been injured.

Soon after he joined about 100 people outside the local police station and described the scene as "like a war zone".

"You couldn't hear anything. It was chaotic at that moment," he said.

Mr Wilson said even the next day he found it hard to process that the shooting had occurred. 

"I still didn't get that it had happened. I felt really angry. But I just didn't get it," he said.

He told of his concern at seeing more heavily armed police in Yuendumu in the aftermath of the shooting, though he understood they were just doing their job and investigating the incident.

But he also criticised the initial decision to call in the Immediate Response Team to handle Mr Walker's arrest, which he described as disrespectful.

Const Rolfe was a member of the IRT sent from Alice Springs. 

He was subsequently charged with murder but acquitted after a Supreme Court trial.

The inquest has heard of a number of racist text messages found on the officer's phone.

Mr Wilson said those text messages were "disgusting" but he indicated he wasn't particularly surprised.

"In the Northern Territory you bump into racists nearly daily if you are Aboriginal," he said.