Detective Inspector Peter Devoy. Photo / Sarah Ivey
A 19-year-old woman police say was an accomplice of 50-year-old motorway gunman Stephen McDonald in the lead up to the fatal shooting of a teenage courier driver has appeared in court.
Margaret Patricia Iris Mann, 19, faced charges in Waitakere District Court yesterday of unlawfully getting into a
stolen motor vehicle, failing to stop for police and driving while forbidden.
Mann was remanded to reappear on February 4.
Police alleged Mann was driving the stolen blue Toyota Corsa in the West Auckland suburb of Glen Eden last Friday from which McDonald first aimed a gun at police.
McDonald has been charged with 29 offences relating to events that happened before the motorway shooting.
Detective Inspector Peter Devoy said Mann was caught by police after the pair ditched the car on Glendale Rd.
McDonald who was armed, fled and allegedly went on to steal a green Toyota Hilux at gunpoint from a nearby resident.
Abandoning that vehicle on Nikau Rd, McDonald ran to Pine Ave where he allegedly took a second vehicle at gunpoint. The grey Nissan Skyline was driven through several suburbs with police in pursuit before it was halted on the Northwestern Motorway about 2pm.
Police said it was these events that led to the accidental police shooting of 17-year-old Halatau Naitoko, of South Auckland.
The blue Toyota Corsa allegedly dumped by Mann had been stolen from Mayoral Drive on January 6.
Police said they wanted to speak the driver of a vehicle that may have passed the truck that McDonald tried unsuccessfully to take moments before he was arrested by police on the motorway.
Police had received a number of calls from witnesses, including one from a man whose car was crashed into by McDonald on Sandringham Rd, in Mt Albert.
But they were very keen to hear if there was someone on the motorway who passed by the truck on the outside lane, heading towards the city, not far from the Newton Rd off ramp, he said.
"The truck driver recalls seeing a vehicle to his left at the time the tragedy was unfolding and it's important that, if his recollection is correct, the people or person in that vehicle contact us."
- NZPA
