No charges over funeral

No charges have been laid in relation to a mass gathering of mourning gang members in Matamata, and police are still trying to figure out who could be held responsible.

A person who went to the Matamata Cemetery on Tuesday to visit a grave site was greeted by hordes of mourners who appeared to be members of a motorcycle gang.

Prior to the tangi, police discussed restrictions with those involved. But on the day those people may not have been able to control who turned up, Waikato area commander Inspector Andrew Mortimore told Stuff yesterday.

‘‘We are considering if we [press charges] in terms of what, if any, action is appropriate to take under the circumstances.’’

Mortimore sympathised with families who had loved ones die during lockdown and said he knew police officers in that situation.

Lawrence Lynch, one of seven mourners at a funeral for his sister-in-law on Monday, said when he returned to the site on Tuesday and saw the group he asked a police officer for an explanation.

‘‘I don’t think the cops could do anything about it because there were too many of the gang members,’’ he said.

Lynch then approached the Matamata-Piako District Council.

‘‘They said: ‘It’s out of control, and we couldn’t do [anything] so we called the police in,’ ’’ he said.

The council said it had received an application for an interment to take place at Matamata Cemetery on Tuesday.

A council spokesperson said it heard ‘‘rumours in the community that large numbers were planning to attend the burial, so we arranged for security guards to be present at the cemetery. When the numbers started to exceed the limits set in the government guidelines, we escalated this to the police.’’

Funerals were initially limited to 10 attendees under alert level 2, but on Wednesday the Government changed that to 50.