Shooting victim's death a 'tragic outcome'

A woman whose innocent son was gunned down by police on Auckland's northwestern motorway wept today as she revealed she has written to the police officer who fired the fatal shots but has not heard anything back.

Seven recommendations for improvements to police procedure have been made by the Independent Police Complaints Authority (IPCA) after an investigation into the fatal shooting Auckland courier driver Halatau Naitoko.

The 17-year-old father died after being shot by a member of the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) during a pursuit of an armed man on the northwestern motorway on January 23, 2009.

He died after being struck in the chest by a bullet intended for drug-fuelled Stephen McDonald, who was armed and posing "an extreme risk'' to police officers and members of the public.

Speaking from her Papatoetoe home today, Halatau's mother Ivoni Fuimaono said she still had questions that needed answering and was yet to hear from the police officer who shot and killed her son by accident.

She wrote to the police officer, who she only knows as Officer A 84, two years ago but had not heard anything back.

"Officer 84, I really want to know your name. I don't want to know you as a number. I wish we could have some time to come out and meet me so we could sit down and talk, please,'' she said.

The mother of 11 said she still wept for her son, three years after he was shot, and photos of the teenager are displayed in her living room.

"I gave birth to Halatau. Officer A 84 took his life.''

She said she received the IPCA's report - released publicly today - last Wednesday but had yet to read all of it.

"It was very difficult to read it. I would read two pages at a time, go for a walk, I went for a coffee, go for a break and then come back and read it again.''

She said the report did give her some details of her son's last moments and she hoped police received better training in using guns.

Among its recommendations, the IPCA said AOS weapons training should be reviewed.

The IPCA criticised police for lacking "effective command and control'', while concluding that Mr Naitoko's death was the "tragic outcome of a rare combination of events''.

The AOS member who fired the shot, who has his identity protected and was referred to in a 116-page IPCA report released today simply as Officer 84, also wounded another innocent driver, Richard Stephen Neville, while also managing to hit McDonald.

McDonald was later convicted and sentenced to 13 years in jail after he admitted to 23 charges, including firing at police, possessing a firearm, aggravated robbery and unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.

The authority concluded that Officer 84 and another colleague, Officer 81 who was also firing at the armed offender, were "justified'' in shooting at McDonald, but ruled their aim was "not accurate or safe, as demonstrated by the outcomes''.

 

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