Frontline arming ends as second suspect found
District-wide arming of frontline police in Canterbury has ended with the arrest of a man wanted in relation to two shootings.
Superintendent John Price made a directive to arm all frontline officers on Tuesday night after an alleged shootout between a man and police.
Tolu Ma’anaima, 33, was shot twice in the lower body by police during the incident after a pursuit ended in Eveleyn Couzins Ave, Richmond. He remains in hospital. Ma’anaima was also alleged to have been in a car with another man – Treik Allen, 20 – when shots were fired at police cars in two incidents on Saturday night, February 24.
Price said officers would be armed until Allen, believed to be armed, was arrested.
Allen was located by police in Papanui at 2.15pm yesterday and was taken into custody without incident, police said.
He was charged with using an imitation firearm against police and is due to appear in the Christchurch District Court today.
The arming directive meant officers routinely carried guns, rather than having them stored in their cars.
The move prompted concerns about a potential ‘‘blanket arming’’ of police, but Price defended the move.
He said there was a ‘‘heightened risk’’ and officers deserved to be kept safe.
The order to arm frontline staff was made about once a year, he said on Friday. Officers already had access to firearms, with Glock pistols and Bushmaster rifles in their cars.
An officer could, after a risk assessment, already carry a firearm while attending a call-out, Price said.
All 12 district commanders have the authority to arm their officers if they deem it necessary.
Police national headquarters said it did not keep records of how many times district commanders used this power. An arms race?
Earlier, Southern district commander Superintendent Paul Basham would not say how often he had used the power in his district, but said it was used only on rare occasions and not done ‘‘lightly’’.
‘‘It’s not that this signals a general arming of the police,’’ he said.
‘‘We’d use it if we needed to.’’ Police Minister Stuart Nash said routine arming of police was not on the horizon.
The arming directive meant officers routinely carried guns, rather than having them stored in their cars.