Family of Steven Wallace won't rest

By NAOMI LARKIN and NZPA

The search for justice for Steven Wallace must go on and the truth will eventually be discovered, mourners were told in Waitara yesterday.

At a memorial service for the 23-year-old, who was shot dead by an off-duty policeman in the main street of the Taranaki town a year ago today, Catholic priest Father Peter Conaghan said the remaining questions would be answered.

About 200 people gathered at the scene of the shooting and two simple bouquets of pink and white flowers on the footpath marked the spot where Mr Wallace died.

"We met here last year in pain, anger, tears and with questions.

"For some the tears have dried up, but the questions remain," said Father Conaghan.

"There are some in our community who want those questions set aside and not asked, or hidden in the back pages of a newspaper.

"That will never happen until all those questions have been answered.

"The day will come when we will know the truth, and, as the Bible says, the truth will make you free."

Mr Wallace's mother, Raewyn, said a prosecution was necessary for the family to move forward.

"All I've ever wanted is for them to go up on to the stand like we would be. I have to be answerable too, don't I?

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else in New Zealand, ever, I don't want them to go through what I've been through," said Mrs Wallace.

The constable who fired the four shots was called out early on April 30 after Mr Wallace, armed with a softball bat and golf club, was seen smashing windows in the Taranaki town.

Mr Wallace, a top local sportsman and a lapsed Victoria University architecture student, had embarked on a 30-minute vandalism spree in which more than 100 windows were broken.

A police report found that the unnamed "Constable A," who shot Mr Wallace, acted lawfully, in self-defence.

Mrs Wallace and her daughter Kelly, aged 22, have been charged with intimidating the policeman's wife.

An inquest and Police Complaints Authority investigation into the death have yet to be heard.

These are unlikely to go ahead until Wanganui lawyer John Rowan, QC, who is still investigating the incident on behalf of the Wallace family, has confirmed whether he will seek a private prosecution.

This month, the Government introduced changes to the Police Complaints Authority as a result of a review by retired High Court judge Sir Rodney Gallen.

Justice Minister Phil Goff commissioned the review last June after publicity about the Waitara shooting.

The main decision arising from the review was to give the authority more investigative capacity of its own, independent of police.

This includes extra funds to employ six independent staff to investigate the most serious complaints.

The central district police commander, Superintendent Mark Lammas, told the Herald yesterday that he could understand that people questioned the transparency of a Police Complaints Authority investigation but this was the appropriate body to carry out an inquiry.

The perception that to be held accountable every officer would have to be put before a criminal court was "unthinkable and untenable," he said.

During the past 60 years, no on-duty police officer has been prosecuted for shooting a member of the public.

After the ceremony in the town centre, the gathering moved to the Waitara cemetery for a blessing of Mr Wallace's headstone.

"The bullets that shattered the quiet Waitara street took one life," said Father Conaghan. "Don't let those bullets continue to shatter any more lives.

"One is enough."