Officers gunned down on Auckland street
An innocent bystander injured when struck by the car involved in a fatal police shooting in Auckland believes he was ‘‘just 10cm from death’’.
One police officer was killed and the other shot in the leg during the incident, which started as a routine traffic stop, on Reynella Dr, in Massey, about 10.30am yesterday.
The car carrying the alleged offenders struck the bystander, who suffered multiple back and rib fractures.
Speaking from Auckland Hospital, the victim, who did not want to be identified, told The Press he was packing his car for a road trip to Rotorua at the time.
The impact caused his head to hit the boot. He believed he was “just 10cm from death”.
‘‘I just suddenly like got like, you know when a bomb blast your ears go and you can’t see anything? I had something like that.
‘‘The next minute, when I woke up, I could hear all the shooting. My wife came and she was crying and trying to drag me inside my property from the road.’’
The man said he heard three shots. His wife was covering him.
He feared for the safety of his 12-year-old son, who was in the car, and his 2-year-old daughter, who was on the footpath, when the shooting started.
The man said he was scared because he thought his family may have been the target.
‘‘[That was the] first thing on my mind because I saw [the offender] shooting towards my house.
‘‘I thought . . . why is he attacking us?’’ New Zealand’s police community has been left reeling after the first onduty death of one of its own in more than a decade.
The officer, who had not been on the force for Waitemata¯ District for long, lost his life in what Police Commissioner Andrew Coster described as a ‘‘heartbreaking’’ incident that unfolded in the course of one of thousands of routine police call-outs
‘‘The next minute, when I woke up, I could hear all the shooting. My wife came and she was crying and trying to drag me inside my property.’’ Injured bystander
every day. ‘‘We are devastated to have lost one of our police family ... [we are] in shock and in mourning.’’
Police last night charged a 24-yearold man with multiple serious offences, including murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving causing injury.
The officer, who has not yet been named, was the 33rd to have been killed in New Zealand in the line of duty since 1890, and the first since 2009.
Senior Constable Len Snee was killed in May 2009 by Jan Molenaar while executing a routine search warrant at Molenaar’s Napier home, in an incident which left two other officers and a member of the public shot and seriously wounded.
In the history of New Zealand policing, 22 officers have been shot and killed since 1890. Since 2002, 15 officers have been wounded by firearms.
Minister of Police Stuart Nash said the officer ‘‘dedicated his career to keeping us safe’’.
‘‘This is a tragic day for our police family,’’ Nash said.
Flags outside Waitakere Police Station were flying at half-mast, surrounded by bouquets of flowers in the hours after the officer’s death.
Police Association president Chris Cahill said though being a police officer was a risky job, they do so with the expectation they will return home and the end of their shift.
‘‘It is an absolute tragedy that the very people who run towards danger to
keep us all safe, can end up paying the ultimate price in the line of duty,’’ he said.
These sentiments were echoed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who said to lose a police officer was ‘‘to lose someone working for all of us, but also a family member, someone’s loved one and friend’’.
Visibly upset while addressing media last night, Waitemata¯ Superintendent Naila Hassan said the Auckland policing team and entire country was ‘‘absolutely devastated’’ by the officer’s death.
The tragedy began at 10.28am yesterday when the two officers responded to an alert involving a vehicle of interest in Massey.
It is unclear what the alert was, or why it was a vehicle of interest.
Putting on their lights and sirens, the two officers attempted to pull the car over, but soon lost sight of it.
The car, fleeing police, hit and injured a member of the public before coming to a crashing halt on Reynella Drive about 10.30am.
A man got out of the car, armed with a long-barrelled firearm and fired multiple shots at the officers – striking them both. The officers were unarmed.
It’s understood the officer who died was shot in the abdomen. The second officer was shot in the leg and taken to Auckland City Hospital where he is now in a stable condition. After opening fire, the shooter got into another vehicle and fled the scene with a second person.
The Armed Offenders Squad was called in, cordoning off the suburban streets, and a manhunt was started.
Over the course of the day, the car was found abandoned, and a firearm was located by police, Coster said at a briefing last night.
Police last night charged a 24-year-old man with multiple serious offences, including murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving causing injury.
Coster asked New Zealanders to keep the officer’s family in their thoughts, as ‘‘he won’t be coming home’’.