Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

AOS officer appeals to keep name hidden

Hawkes Bay Today
5 Feb, 2016 02:10 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Hawke's Bay Armed Offenders Squad members

Hawke's Bay Armed Offenders Squad members

The identity of a former Hawke's Bay armed offenders squad member who was yesterday acquitted of accidentally shooting a restrained man in 2013 will remain suppressed until further notice.

The officer had name suppression throughout a three and a half day trial at the Napier District Court, but has appealed Judge David Ongley's order to lift the suppression at 4pm today.

Following the jury's not guilty verdict yesterday, the officer's lawyer, Jonathan Krebs, requested Judge Ongley allow the suppression to remain in place to give his client time to appeal.

The officer was found not guilty of one charge of careless use of a fire arm by a jury who returned their verdict after two hours deliberation on Thursday .

The man who was unintentionally shot on August 16, 2013 has permanent name suppression.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The officer's M4 Bushmaster rifle unexpectedly discharged as he leant forward to help lift the man from the ground when the AOS operation had come to an end.

The man was critically injured and taken to Wellington hospital after the bullet entered his shoulder though a "thick woolen jersey".

The squad was called to the Karamu Rd home the man shared with his mother after she had called with concerns about her son's behaviour and mentioned there was a gun in the house.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The man came out of his house responding to the loud speaker which was used. He was yelling aggressively and wearing boxing gloves but complied with police and was restrained and handcuffed with plastic cable ties.

He had been tasked with reading the man his rights which he did while kneeling lightly on his back with his left knee.

The constable had slung his rifle to his right side, after checking the safety catch was on, so he could kneel.

On standing, he returned the rifle back to his front, believing the safety catch was still on and did not recheck it.

Usually a click could be heard when the safety catch was moved. During his evidence, the officer said he had not heard anything.

"I've gone forward a little basically, tilted a little bit, that's when I heard the bang," he said.

He said he did not realise it was his rifle that had discharged at first, usually smoke or a flash could be seen, "I don't remember seeing anything".

Throughout the trial the court heard from fellow squad members, police and forensic scientists who described events leading up to the unintentional discharge.

A national forensic scientist took a rifle from a fully suited AOS mannequin which had been rolled into the court room for evidence and demonstrated how the weight of the rifle was such that if the switch rubbed on something it could be flicked from the safety setting to fire setting.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP