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Simon O’Connor / Stuff
The Independent Authority for Police Conduct has ruled that the use of force during the arrest of a wanted man in November 2019 was justified (File photo).
A police officer was justified in kicking a wanted man twice during an arrest, the police watchdog ruled.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) determined that the use of force to arrest the man was proportional to the risk he posed.
The man was wanted by police for an aggravated robbery with a firearm on November 12, 2019.
He was well known to police for having committed crimes in the Auckland, Manukau and Waitematā West counties areas, according to a decision published Tuesday by the IPCA.
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During the afternoon of November 25, police received information that the man was in a commercial building in Glendene, West Auckland.
He was thought to be armed, according to the decision.
However, upon arrival, he fled a vehicle into a two-story building.
The armed criminal brigade and an armed response team were called in to help, asking him to leave the building.
But the man was on the phone with 111, claiming he had an AR15 rifle and handgun, along with a bulletproof vest and a hostage, according to the decision.
He said he was not going to release the hostage until his demands for a car were met.
The wanted man then exited through a window and climbed onto the roof of the building, drinking from a bottle that police believed contained the drug gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), according to the decision.
He finally came down from the roof and when three officers from the armed criminal brigade approached him, he threw himself to the ground and put his hands on his head.
It was then that one of the officers kicked the man twice. The first hit hit the man on the shoulder and the second hit his head.
The decision said that this was to dislodge an object in the man’s hand.
In January 2020, the man complained to the IPCA that he had been assaulted by the police and was not provided with adequate medical care.
MORE TO COME.
