Grandmother lays complaint over police treatment

An investigation has been launched into a police confrontation that left a tiny Masterton grandmother injured and bleeding.
Lyn Milroy, 68, said she felt compelled to lay a police complaint about allegedly being assaulted by a police officer, which happened about 9.30pm on July 3 outside the Shell service station in Chapel Street.
Bernard Steeds, Independent Police Conduct Authority communications manager, confirmed receipt of the complaint from Mrs Milroy last month and said the agency is "treating the matter seriously" and have requested a report of the incident from Masterton police.
He declined to comment further on the matter, which "we are now looking into".
Mrs Milroy, who stands 150cm tall and weighs 44kgs, believes police became unreasonably violent given the circumstances of the incident and her size and age.
She said neither her, her daughter, or her grandson has convictions and she has now "lost respect and admiration for the police".
Mrs Milroy said the night she was injured she was searching by car for her 16-year-old grandson with his mother Debbie Karaitiana after he failed to respond to texts and a phone call about his whereabouts.
The pair came across him half an hour later standing on a footpath outside the Chapel Street service station while a police officer was speaking with the driver of a vehicle he had just exited.
"When we saw the police lights I said to Debbie 'I bet that's him' and it was. We parked on the forecourt of the garage and told him to get in our car and come home with us."
She said two more patrol cars arrived at the scene, at which point her grandson started a discussion with the first officer and another policeman who had arrived at the scene, repeatedly asking "what have I done"?
"The second constable was on the footpath by this stage and he told me to 'take my spoilt brat' into the car and go home."
The discussion became heated between her grandson and the second officer, she said, at which the officer "grabbed and threw" her grandson to the ground and "smashed his head into the asphalt" before handcuffing him with the help of the first policeman.
Both women ran toward her grandson after seeing blood flowing from his nose, she said.
She said she asked "what are you doing?" and "he's only a kid" before extending her arm in front of the second officer "to get between him and her grandson.
"That's when he foot-tripped me and pushed my head into the footpath," Mrs Milroy said.
"The next thing I know I'm face first on the ground and I could feel blood dripping from my face."
Mrs Karaitiana said she tried to wrestle the second officer from her mother, who was prone on the ground, after she saw him push her "in the head or neck area" into the footpath.
"I saw blood pouring out of her face and put my arm around his neck and went to pull him back. He let Mum go and grabbed me by the hair and I got hit on the cheek by his elbow I think," Mrs Karaitiana said.
Mrs Milroy said one of two other police officers at the scene offered her a ride to the hospital, which she declined before both women followed a patrol car carrying her grandson to the police station.
After the eventual release into their custody of her grandson, who has lived with her since he was almost 3, the group went to Wairarapa Hospital where both her grandson and herself received treatment for injuries received during the incident.
Mrs Milroy woke the next morning with a suspected broken nose and small cuts across the bridge of her nose, two black eyes and a sore neck, she said.
An x-ray has since shown her nose was not broken, she said, although hospital staff had recommended she return for further treatment.
She said her grandson is now "working through" a family tragedy involving his father, who police are treating as a murder victim after he went missing from Wairarapa earlier this year.
"I have always held the police in very high regard and admired the work they do. However, my mind has changed," she said.
"These officers were heavy-handed, arrogant, and used unnecessary force. On my grandson, my daughter, and myself.
"Instead of defusing the situation, they aggravated it.
"Is this the sort of treatment you get when you care about your kids? The violence on our streets from teenagers is appalling and I was out there as I was concerned for my grandson's safety.
"What a joke. I should have been concerned for my own."
Masterton police area commander Inspector John Johnston confirmed a report is to be compiled on the incident, which has not yet led to any charges against Mrs Milroy, her daughter or grandson.