Man ‘offered to swap places with hostage’
A witness to Thursday’s hostage drama at a Rotorua bank says he saw a ‘‘visibly distressed’’ older man offering to take the place of his wife – a long-time employee at the bank.
Kereama Wright, a journalist from Aukaha news, was on his way to collect his child from kohanga just before 4pm on Thursday, when he got a message from a friend telling him there was a gunman at the BNZ’s Amohau St branch.
‘‘I was a little bit shocked because this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Rotorua.’’
Police have since confirmed the man was not armed.
Wright headed for the city’s central mall and found police swarming the area, with stores locked down.
‘‘When I arrived, I saw a fairskinned man walking around inside the bank, appearing to give instructions to some of the – most of them were wā hine – inside the bank.’’
Wright left to collect his child but returned about 20 minutes later to find cordons in place and a police negotiator, who appeared to be in conversation with the alleged gunman, could be seen at the entrance to the bank.
A ‘‘visibly distressed elderly man’’ whose wife was one of the hostages in the bank, was speaking to police in an effort to swap places with her, Wright said.
‘‘His wife had been working at BNZ for many years and he was really upset. He was really scared for the welfare of his wife and he wanted to talk to the offender man-to-man and ask him to let his wife go . . . it was very sad to see.’’
After discussions with the police negotiator, Wright said the hostages came calmly out of the bank.
A man was due to appear in court yesterday, charged with kidnapping. –