A mentally ill patient was shot with a Taser after he lunged
at a police officer with a hunting knife in the Wellington
suburb of Johnsonville this afternoon.
Police said that if they hadn't used the stun gun, they would
have had to shoot the man with a firearm.
The man threatened mental health workers and police with the
knife as they attempted to recall him to a mental health unit
about midday.
He was taken into custody after a two-hour stand-off at a
house in Bannister Ave.
No one was injured, but an ambulance had checked out the
tasered man.
The man had been charged with assault with a weapon and
returned to a secure unit in Wellington Hospital's mental
health ward, police said.
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