Family upset at officer's promotion

The family of murdered liquor store owner Navtej Singh are calling for a review of the promotion of the officer responsible for co-ordinating the police response to his shooting.

The officer is now an inspector and has been working in the police's northern communications centre - the same department heavily criticised by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) for its role in the south Auckland shooting, the Sunday Star Times reported.

"It's very disappointing," said family spokesman Daljit Singh. "We think it [the promotion] needs to be reviewed."

The officer was not named in the IPCA report but the paper named him officer as Shawn Rutene.

The paper could not reach him for comment.

Mr Rutene, who is referred to in the IPCA report as Officer A and was a senior sergeant at the time of the shooting, told the authority's investigators that, had he been fully aware of the facts, he would have taken a different approach and entered the Manurewa store sooner.

The IPCA report said the police response to the June 2008 shooting arguably breached the police's duty of care to preserve life.

Mr Singh was shot in the stomach during the robbery of his store. It took 31 minutes from the first emergency call from his business partner Gurwinder Singh for police to enter the store, and another six minutes before ambulance staff were allowed in. Mr Singh died in hospital the next day.

IPCA chairwoman Justice Lowell Goddard found the delay was not caused by any single failing, but rather a series of procedural, and command and control failures.

Among her findings were that a senior sergeant, called Officer A, assumed command of the incident when he was not in a position to effectively manage the response, direct resources or formulate a tactical plan.

A communication blunder meant he thought the offenders were still in the area of the store, despite police broadcasts saying they had fled.

Police superintendent Kelvin Powell, manager of the police's northern communications centre, told the Sunday Star Times Mr Rutene was appropriately appointed and promoted. He had applied for a nationally advertised vacancy and was considered to be the best.

Anitelea Chan-Kee was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for Mr Singh's murder. Five other men were jailed for up to six years and four months for aggravated robbery.

- NZPA