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Alo Ngata, 29, died after being arrested in July 2018.
Alo Ngata’s family has asked a coroner to release footage from the police Eagle helicopter showing him attacking an elderly man before being arrested and dying in police custody.
The Ngata family’s attorney, Marie Dyhrberg QC, confirmed that the family had requested that the coroner release the footage from the July 2018 incident.
The images are currently subject to a non-publication order, which the family has requested to revoke.
Ngata, 29, was taken into police custody after he allegedly assaulted a stranger, retiree Mike Reilly, on a street in Freemans Bay in central Auckland.
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Officers shot Ngata four times and pepper sprayed him twice while he reportedly fought them. He was stopped with a hood for spitting.
The future father was found unconscious on the floor of his cell and died at Auckland City Hospital three days later.
A report from the Independent Police Conduct Authority said that an autopsy found that Ngata died of suffocation, and although the use of police force was “reasonable,” the police did not fulfill their duty to care for Ngata while he was in the cells.
NZME He also reported that Reilly’s son, Tom Reilly, had also requested the coroner to release the recording.
Tom Reilly hoped that a visual record of the assault would help convince the ACC that it was the reason Reilly could no longer walk.
Dyhrberg said it would be beneficial for both families to post the video as it would provide uninterrupted footage of what happened.
