Guns drawn on a busy city street

By Patrick Gower

Suspects spreadeagled on tarmac, policemen in flak jackets toting rifles - the sun-drenched streets of the North Shore seemed more like the mean streets of LA yesterday.

A teenager with an imitation firearm virtually identical to a police issue Glock pistol caused all the fuss.

Members of the public alerted police to the man after spotting him in a car with two others outside the Bank of New Zealand on Link Drive.

Jane Sinclair, of Albany, had just walked out of a nearby store when the police swooped on the men's car.

"There were quite a few guns and bulletproof vests around. It looked quite serious," she said.

Bill Meyrick, of Northbridge, watched the scene unfold from outside the bank.

"I thought they were making a movie. It was like Hill St Blues," he said.

Sergeant Bill Eaton, of Takapuna, said the use of imitation firearms was a growing concern. "Obviously we can't differentiate between what is real and what isn't, so it is difficult to identify what level of danger the public is in. We'll treat all calls like this very seriously."

Last July, police shot dead a West Auckland man, Eddie Leo, after he pointed a fake Glock pistol at them near Kumeu.

In a 1997 test asking police officers to pick a real gun from a line-up of replicas, only three of 50 officers got the right gun.

The youth arrested yesterday was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and will appear in the North Shore Youth Court on March 6.