Health workers who fled a remote Northern Territory community over safety fears hours before police shot and killed an Indigenous teenager believed they were being targeted by criminals, an inquest has been told.
Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs on November 9, 2019.
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Officers fought to save the Warlpiri man's life but he died on the floor at the local police station about an hour after the incident.
No medical staff were on call in the community to attend to Mr Walker because most had fled earlier in the day after a series of break-ins at their homes left some feeling "very unsafe".
Nurse Vanessa Watts says health workers in Yuendumu felt targeted by crime and powerless to stop it, before they evacuated.
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She often found knives wedged into the door at her home at night, she said, and offenders, thought to be youths, broke into her yard and garage most evenings.
The night before the medical team fled Ms Watts said offenders again tried to break into her home where she lived with her young son but she woke up and turned on the lights.
The would-be burglars then moved onto Ms Watts' boss Luana Symonds' home next door, where they also attempted to gain entry.
"The whole house was shaking," she told the Alice Springs inquest on Monday.
"I was a little bit scared just because of the real force being used ... I later found that they were using shovels, pick axes and stuff."
The offenders also vandalised two nurses' cars during the attack, and shops and other service providers were regularly broken into across the community.
"By the time it got to that stage where we were getting our cars broken into and smashed in the driveways it was feeling like we were being targeted," she said.
It followed a break-in at Ms Symonds' home three days earlier when intruders ransacked her and her partner's belongings.
Youths had also attacked the health clinic and ambulance with rocks in the weeks before as Ms Watts was treating a patient in the emergency ward.
"A lot of it was just normal, but it is not really normal when you go away and think about it," she said.
The inquest continues on Tuesday with evidence from another nurse from the Yuendumu clinic, Cassandra Holland.
