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Officers shot a man three times in an incident near Dargaville in Northland, police say.
The man, who was wanted on firearms and cannabis charges, was arrested after the incident in the rural settlement of Tangowahine on Tuesday morning.
Superintendent Tony Hill said the man had been discovered by a member of the public who was acting suspiciously.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
The Veterinary Specialists Group, at Mt Albert in Auckland, has a team of experts in complex surgery.
He was chased by police and ran into a field, then turned around and shot the dog, Hill said.
The police then shot the man three times.
Police said the couple were flown separately to hospital and veterinary surgery for treatment.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Staff from the Veterinary Specialist Group rushed to meet the shot dog when the helicopter carrying it landed.
Both are now in a stable condition.
The injured dog has been airlifted to the Veterinary Specialist Group on the Auckland Unitec campus in Mt Albert, which performs complex animal surgeries.
Staff were seen running to meet Northland’s rescue helicopter as it landed, and then loading the dog onto a stretcher with a drip attached.
There was also a police car at the veterinary clinic.
At around 12.30pm, two police officers were standing guard at the scene of the incident, cordoning off Tangowahine Valley Rd at the intersection of Avoca Rd.
JASON DORDAY / THINGS
A police dog shot in an incident in Northland’s Dargaville arrives at the Veterinary Specialist Group on Auckland’s Mt Albert.
Officers turned a Fonterra truck attempting to use the highway and advised the driver to take an alternate route.
The rural area has limited telephone reception and is surrounded by hills and farmland.
The side streets of Tangowahine Valley Rd are unsealed and unmarked gravel roads.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
Police are at the cordon blocking State Highway 14 in Tangowahine.
A local resident said he had heard many police cars traveling down State Highway 14, starting just before 10 a.m.
She said that around 10:45 a.m. she had seen a dog driving a car along with two undercover police cars.
Tangowahine Valley Rd resident Queen Graham said she heard sirens from police and ambulances around 10 a.m. shortly after dropping off her 3-year-old son in kindergarten.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
More police arrive at the cordon.
She didn’t think about anything until her husband called to say there had been an incident.
Graham said that nothing but car accidents had occurred during his four and a half years of life on the road.
She said she was “very scared” that the incident had happened so close to home, especially since she had a 3-month-old baby.
A couple who live further up the road, who did not want to be identified, said their son called them “panicky” after learning of the incident.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
Police were seen at the cordon turning a truck attempting to travel down the closed highway.
They were driving home around 9.55am and had to stop twice to let emergency service vehicles pass.
They also saw a unit of police dogs driving in the opposite direction.
The couple weren’t overly nervous about the incident, but they knew their rural home was about a 20-40 minute drive from the nearest municipalities if something happened.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
A police vehicle has been allowed to pass through the cordon.
“In the field, you basically have to take care of yourself.”
At Tangowahine School, classes continued normally, Principal Huw Wainwright said.
He said police had told staff that an incident was unfolding, but had not provided details of what had happened or where.
The school was not closed, he said, adding: “The police have not advised us to do anything out of the ordinary.
“We have not informed the students just to keep them safe,” he said.
The shooting is the latest in a series of gun incidents in Northland.
Less than a month ago, two people were injured in a shooting from a vehicle in Kaitaia, in the far north.
One person was shot in the foot and another in the leg when their parked car was hit by a burst of bullets from a passing vehicle.
Police were reportedly shot on 17 November when a driver failed to stop at a checkpoint in Whangārei. The 24-year-old accused of the shooting has pleaded not guilty.
In October, a police vehicle was shot in Kerikeri. The shooting was a random attack on a police officer, who was driving down State Highway 11 when she was stopped by a car in front of her in the early hours of the morning.
The incident saw temporarily armed police officers in pursuit of those responsible.
Police were also fired upon during a nightly chase in September. The accused man will face a jury trial in January.
