Details of the man who fired a crossbow, holed himself up into a house and entered into hours of negotiations in New Plymouth on Saturday have been revealed.
Police were called to the address in Okato, where a man reportedly fired the weapon during a family dispute yesterday afternoon.
In a statement, Taranaki area commander Keith Borrell described how it took hours after they'd been alerted to the incident at 4:10pm on Saturday afternoon to make an arrest.
"Police were deployed to the address and communicated with the man, appealing for him to come outside and informing him that he was under arrest," he said. "The man refused to comply and made verbal threats to officers."
Due to the "escalating nature" of the incident he said the Armed Offenders Squad was deployed.