Police cleared over Stratford siege
A police officer has been cleared after he shot at a suspect during a lengthy and tense siege in the central Taranaki town of Stratford in March last year.
Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) chairperson Kenneth Johnston, KC, released his decision yesterday – almost a year after the alleged offender gave himself up following a 13-hour standoff.
An intelligence report had been circulated by police on March 27 warning that the offender, who was wanted for arrest, was likely to be armed, would drive dangerously, and was unlikely to stop if approached.
Later that night, the wanted man’s car was twice spiked during a police pursuit, before he fired at officers after he warned them to back off.
He eventually abandoned his car and ran off into the darkness into suburban Stratford, where he was tracked by a police dog handler and Armed Offenders Squad members to a house.
A number of people were in and around the property when police approached, with one man being handcuffed outside when an officer believed they were being shot at.
As an officer repeatedly shouted “Shots fired”, a woman came running from the house. Another officer believed he saw two shots being fired from a bedroom window.
An officer told the IPCA he fired two shots at the suspect after he saw the man raise a shotgun as if to fire at him.the shots missed and the offender moved away from the window and out of sight from police.
The same officer later saw the suspect in the house, and again believed he was aiming the shotgun at him, so he fired for a third time, again missing the alleged offender.
The report said the officer also failed to report at the time that he had repeatedly fired at the suspect, only doing so several hours later.
While police did not fire at the suspect again, the alleged offender fired twice – once into the kitchen ceiling, and another time into a roof space through an open manhole.
In his report, Johnston said the officer who fired at the suspect was justified in doing so because he believed there was a risk of death or serious harm to himself or others.
While there was some confusion as to whether the suspect had actually fired at police from the house, the report found that the officer was not to know if his shotgun was loaded or not. The officer was in an exposed position, and there had been a “Shots fired” call made by fellow police.
The report said several other officers would have also shot at the suspect had he not withdrawn from their sight.
In a statement, Superintendent Scott Fraser said officers had to act in a way to protect not only themselves but the public. “This was a lengthy and demanding incident, where a firearm was both presented at police and discharged.
“I am incredibly proud of their efforts, in a situation that lasted for a significant period of time. The responding staff did everything they could to reach a resolution without any harm.”