Guilty plea over siege
A man at the centre of a siege in Palmerston North removed tiles from a house he hid in so he could watch armed police as they searched for him.
Caleb Peter Kovaleski, 26, is staring down the barrel of a jail sentence, after admitting to using a firearm against a police officer – an action that led to a Palmerston North suburb being locked down for the best part of two days.
He pleaded guilty in the Palmerston North District Court on Tuesday to charges relating to the incident, which involved threats against police, a highspeed car chase, and residents of Cloverlea suburb kept out of their homes.
According to the summary of facts, police were searching for Kovaleski after he failed to appear in court on three charges each of driving while disqualified and theft – charges to which he also pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
He was spotted crouching in front of a Ford Telstar in Miro St by two officers on June 30, about 10.45am.
They parked in front of his car and the passenger, a detective whose name is suppressed, approached Kovaleski.
He responded by moving to the back seat of the car and pulling out a gun, which was cloaked in a jacket, before swearing at the officers, telling them to leave.
The detective got back in the police car and the driver reversed away at speed.
Kovaleski then got in his car and sped off, going up Richmond Ave and along Tremaine Ave.
He drove in excess of 110kmh and on the wrong side of the road, mounting the kerb outside a dairy at one point.
After police stopped their pursuit, Kovaleski hid his car on a Willowstream Gr property. He entered and camped out there while police cordoned off Cloverlea.
He fetched items from around the house to use as weapons before loading the gun and climbing into the ceiling.
He removed tiles from the roof to create a lookout point, from where he watched the armed offenders squad search for him.
Kovaleski surrendered to police at 4.30pm on July 1.
Defence lawyer Tony Thackery said Kovaleski had written a letter to his victims, which was passed to Judge Lance Rowe.
The judge said he would get the Crown to give it to the two police officers and the residents of the house Kovaleski broke into.
Kovaleski will stay in custody until October for sentencing, with restorative justice possibly taking place between him and his victims before then.
Away from court, Willowstream Gr resident Noeline Sargison, who lived directly across from the house Kovaleski had been holed-up in during the lockdown, said the incident cost her and other people a lot of money.
A neighbour’s property suffered damage when the armed offenders squad went through it, she said.
Tremaine Thomson and his dad live just around the corner. He said it was a frustrating and uncertain couple of days during the lockdown.
Thomson said it was good to hear Kovaleski was back in court and the matter was pretty simple. ‘‘If you’re running around with guns you should go to jail.’’
He said his dad got stuck outside the cordon, but managed to sneak in through alleyways.
Sargison said people tried sneaking over the embankment behind her house to get home, some of them waiting until it was dark to slip past the police.
‘‘A few people got through before the cops caught on. I tried it, but I got stopped.’’