Cop took ‘safer’ job

A New Zealand-born police officer shot dead by a handcuffed suspect inside a station had taken the job of custody sergeant because he thought it would be safer, friends have revealed. Matt Ratana, 54, who had planned to retire next year, was gunned down by a 23-year-old suspect at Croydon

Custody Centre on Saturday (NZ time) . As tributes poured in for Ratana, his friend Neil

Donohue said the rugby fanatic had moved to a job in the custody suite because he believed it was safer than being out on the street. ‘‘He thought it was his safest option just to see him through to his retirement and no-one expected this to happen – certainly not within the police cells.’’ Investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct are trying to establish the circumstances of the shooting and the events in the minutes after the suspect was initially detained. Last night the suspect remained in a critical condition in hospital where he was being held under armed guard. – Sunday Telegraph