Man’s death in park shooting not ‘suicide by cop’
It all happened so fast. David Cerven called 111 and asked police to come to Myers Park in central Auckland. He said he had a weapon and police opened fire. But a coroner has found his death was not a ‘‘suicide by cop’’.
Within two minutes of armed officers arriving, bullets were raining down on him. He didn’t have a weapon. He pretended to have one, pulling his empty hands out of his pockets and pointing them in a firing stance.
One officer opened up with his M4 rifle, firing five times. Another took aim with his Glock pistol, letting off three rounds. It was dark on the night of August 2, 2015 and their shooting was inaccurate – only two bullets from the rifle found their target and the Glock’s missed altogether.
Cerven was struck in his jaw and stomach and the 21-year-old from Slovakia was pronounced dead seven minutes after an ambulance arrived.
Following a two-day inquest in October and December 2017, Coroner Katharine Greig, has released her findings, concluding his death did not amount to suicide.
One of the purposes of the inquest was to address the issue of whether Cerven engaged in an act of ‘‘suicide’’ on the night he died.
The hearing considered the circumstances of Cerven’s death, whether Cerven’s own actions contributed to his death, the issue of self-inflicted death and whether or not Cerven provoked the use of lethal force by police.
Coroner Greig accepted that when Officers 12 and 16 arrived on the scene, Cerven did not comply with their instructions to get on the ground and instead suddenly moved towards them with his arms outstretched.
‘‘I have also accepted that Officers 12 and 16 believed that Cerven had a gun in his hands and they were going to be shot and that it was on this basis that they fired the shots in Cerven’s direction – to protect themselves and others at the scene from death or serious injury,’’ Coroner Greig said.
Despite Coroner Greig being uncertain about why Cerven behaved the way he did that night, she said his actions did contribute to his death.
‘‘I further find that it cannot be known whether the outcome would have been different if Officers 12 or 16 had chosen other options (such as those suggested by the IPCA) when they entered Myers Park.
‘‘I find that David Cerven died at Myers Park, Auckland City on 2 August 2015. The cause of his death was gunshot injury to the abdomen from a weapon discharged by a police officer in circumstances that do not amount to suicide.’’
FOREIGN LEGION STORY Cerven arrived in New Zealand in March 2015 with his girlfriend on a one-year working holiday visa and got a job as a labourer.
His girlfriend described him as a ‘‘very happy person’’ and not someone to be sad or depressed.
Cerven was an avid kickboxer and was believed to have sustained a knee injury doing the sport. But he told a number of work colleagues and a Tinder date he had been injured while serving as a foreign legion soldier for the United States in the Iraq war. He claimed to have been shot in the knee for refusing to shoot a child, the inquest heard.
Because of this, the US Army would not pay for operations to fix his knee, so his mother in Slovakia took out a loan and Cerven was in New Zealand to earn money to pay that debt back. However, police inquiries found Cerven did not fight in the war.
Three weeks before moving to New Zealand Cerven took out a 24,000 euro loan from a bank in Slovakia, there was further evidence he had taken another loan of 6000 euros.
‘‘There is evidence that he was gambling online in New Zealand and whilst in New Zealand he made bets totalling almost $7000.’’
In the coroner’s report, former colleagues said Cerven became stressed about paying back the money.
By August 2015, Cerven had been in New Zealand five months, and desperate for money to pay back his mother, he robbed two liquor stores and a dairy armed with a knife. The day he died, police had issued a photo urging Cerven to turn himself in. FINAL EXCHANGES
Over the course of the night he died, more than 100 text messages were exchanged between Cerven and girlfriend Eva Vyrvova.
Vyrvova sent messages asking him to contact her, saying she would otherwise die from grief.
He replied, ‘‘I am on the run my dear. I want to be free just for this one day. I will confess tomorrow. I will need to turn the phone off because they are monitoring everything. I love you Buby, please forgive me everything ... Please get yourself home. Tell the parents that I am sorry.’’
At 6.54pm, Cerven sent his final text to Vyrvova: ‘‘I will destroy the life of my family now do not destroy the life of yours.
‘‘When I am in jail, I don’t want to be in contact with anybody, Buby, and I am ashamed.
‘‘Don’t suffer evka, I love you, it is not your fault.’’
Detective Andrew Saunders told the inquest at Auckland’s Chorus House that Cerven had become emotional after seeing a media report naming him as a person of interest in one of three aggravated robberies of liquor stores.
Coroner Greig did not make any recommendations, but extended her condolences to Cerven’s mother and Vyrvova.
‘‘I acknowledge the tragedy of the loss of a dearly loved son and partner in circumstances that were sudden and shocking and made even more difficult because his death occurred in a country far from home,’’ she said.
Coroner Greig also made permanent orders suppressing the identities of Officers 12 and 16.