ARMED AND DANGEROUS
NZ police shoot almost as many people as their counterparts in the UK, which has 13 times the population. Now former officers, lawyers and families are calling for a radical rethink of how such cases are handled. Tony Wall and Catrin Owen report.
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.
Within two minutes of armed officers arriving, bullets were raining down on him. He didn’t have a gun – in fact, he had no weapon.
He pretended to have one though, pulling his empty hands out of his pockets and pointing them in a firing stance like an outlaw in a bad movie.
One officer opened up with his M4 rifle, firing five times. Another took aim with his Glock pistol, firing three rounds.
It was dark and their shooting was inaccurate – only two rounds from the rifle found their target and the Glock’s missed altogether.
Cerven was struck in the jaw and stomach and the 21-year-old, from Slovakia, was pronounced dead seven minutes after an ambulance arrived.
It was August, 2015 and Cerven had only been in the country five months.
Desperate for money to pay back a loan his mother had taken out to pay for his knee surgery, 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.
Experts suggest the case highlights a problem – that our cops are too quick to rush in, creating stand-offs that too often result in gunfire. Some question
whether training is up to scratch and say the fact that cases seldom, if ever, go to court only encourages officers to use their guns rather than other tactical options. Barrister Nicholas Taylor, a specialist in firearms law, says the officers who shot at Cerven should have been prosecuted. ‘‘It was chaotic, disorganised,’’ he says. ‘‘There was a cowboyish attitude . . . they just Rambo-like pulled the trigger . . . and hoped they’d hit something.’’ Inquiries found the two officers hadn’t advised the communications centre of their intended approach, meaning the four unarmed staff already there were not aware of their plan and it was not approved by the dispatcher in charge. The Independent Police Complaints Authority found the shooting ‘‘justified’’ because the officers believed Cerven had a gun and they feared for their lives. But it also found that they caused Cerven’s response by their own actions. There were a range of other options they could have taken, the authority found, including further negotiations and delaying the arrest until the park could be properly cordoned. The officers faced no criminal charges, which is not surprising – police have never in modern times charged an officer involved in a fatal shooting.
A coroner’s inquest into Cerven’s death will resume next month.
Police reject criticism of their handling of the incident, saying they were keeping themselves and the community safe.
Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers, who was Auckland district commander at the time, says the officers acted according to their training in what was a ‘‘highly volatile, challenging and fast-moving situation’’.
‘‘My staff made what will probably be the biggest decision they will make in their careers. It was a decision that in reality no officer wants to have to make. The emotional impacts do not simply come and go – they last forever.’’
Cerven’s friends and family remain mystified and a Slovakian friend, Ejlo Slamka, says Cerven’s mother, Maria, who is a teacher, still finds it very hard to speak about his death.
Friend David Sivak, says: ‘‘I never saw that he was in depression so that’s why his passing shocked me. Nobody understood that.
‘‘David never had and never used a gun and I think that police didn’t have to shoot him. They should act differently.’’
Cerven was one of 16 people fatally shot by police in the past 10 years.
The number of people killed or wounded by police gunfire in the past decade has spiked, with 35 people shot. Forty-two were shot in the 100 years prior to 2007.
The past two and a half years have been particularly bad, with 14 people hit by police bullets, eight of them fatally.
It’s hard to draw an international comparison because of a lack of data, but statistics show that UK police fatally shot 22 people in the past 10 years – only six more than New Zealand police in a population 13 times larger.
Officers in England and Wales discharged firearms 50 times between 2009 and 2017, including during terrorism incidents.
New Zealand police discharged firearms against people 39 times in the same period.
In January, then-IPCA chairman Sir David Carruthers announced a special inquiry into the recent spate of shootings, saying they were a concern and the authority wanted to ensure force was used within wellunderstood limits.
But the new chair, Judge Colin Doherty, now says the investigation is focussing on whether enough is being done to control the availability of firearms.
Certainly, the availability of firearms for criminals is the reason the Police Association believes shootings have risen.