A policeman was acquitted on Friday of all charges after firing dead an australian aboriginal in a case that has been highlighted during the protests following the American George Floyd murder in keep.
Constable Zachary Rolfe, 30, denied killing Kumanjayi Walker after 19-year- old stabbed the policeman with the scissors on November 9, 2019.
Rolfe also pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory to the two alternative charges of manslaughter and violent act causing death. A jury on Friday also acquitted him of these offences.
Rolfe could have become the first Australian policeman to be sentenced of killing a member of native of australia population, who are overrepresented in the country’s prisons.
Outside of court, Rolfe said the jury had made “the right decision.”
“Many of people suffer today – Kumanjayi’s family and son community – and it is not need to get to this point, so I’ll leave that space for them,” Rolfe said.
Walker died after Rolfe shot him three times times in Outback Natives community of Yuendumu.
Walker’s death protested at rallies in Australia following the death in jail of Floyd, a black man, in United States in May 2020. Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to more over 22 years old in prison for Floyd’s murder.
