Hawke's Bay police negotiation team reveal how they ended 12-hour stand-off

Sergeant Marie Marshall: "We have an obligation to the public too to make sure that we keep everyone safe." Photo / Warren Buckland

After nine hours, the face of a man who had rendered a Napier suburb to a stand-still emerged from out of the darkness.

"The house is surrounded ... there is a phone at the doorstep ... pick it up ... we want to talk to you," a police negotiator said.

He retreated. But the negotiator continued. "Please come back outside now. Please follow our instructions. You are not going to be harmed."

The 25-year-old man, who has now been charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm, and discharging it, picked up the phone, delivered to the Onekawa address by an Armed Offenders Squad member at 11pm on Monday - opening the lines of communication, that had, until then been closed.

"As soon as he had that phone, we put a phone call through, from our negotiation cell and conversation engaged, so we were negotiating from there on," Hawke's Bay Police Negotiation Team Commander, Sergeant Marie Marshall said.

Hawke's Bay Police Negotiation Team Commander, Sergeant Marie Marshall says negotiation played a crucial role in ending an armed stand-off. Photo / Warren Buckland

At 2.15pm that afternoon, the Hawke's Bay Police Negotiation Team, along with AOS had been called to the address after a report there was a male who had a gun, with a woman, and baby, at the address.

Police set up a large cordon, put down road spikes and sent four schools into lockdown, and the negotiation team got to work - assessing the risks, and trying to find a way of communicating with those inside.

The National Capability Adviser, based in Christchurch was informed, and two police negotiators from Palmerston North and another from Wellington, as well as tactical support from Levin, were sent to Napier.

"The Hawke's Bay AOS team were in place really early," Marshall said. "They were quick off the mark and really efficient, which allowed us to do our job in liaison with STG [Special Tactical Group].

"We didn't have access to call him, there was no phone we could contact him on, so we had to use all our consideration and that meant that it took longer.

"We've got to look at our main objective, what do we want to achieve and then what steps do we need to take to achieve that and the ultimate goal was to make sure that everyone was safe and out of that house safely."

Weighing up whether they continued through the night was a big consideration, as the cover of darkness breaks, and children venture out to go to school, Marshall said.

"We had a baby and a female inside the house, it was in a public street, and people were being disrupted through not having to go out of their houses or not being allowed in, so we have an obligation to the public too to make sure we keep everyone safe."

Police and AOS at the scene near Alexander Ave, where a man was believed to be armed. Photo / Warren Buckland

Marshall, who has been a part of the Hawke's Bay squad for 12 years, was on the negotiation team, but not a negotiator during the Napier Siege 10 years ago.

That siege, in 2009, claimed the life of Senior Constable Len Snee but has proved to be a useful learning tool for all involved.

"A lot of the same sorts of skills are used at these big jobs but certainly, the lessons learnt from previous jobs make these jobs flow better because of the expertise and the experience."

By 11pm, the two Palmerston North negotiators had arrived, including the one who eventually spoke to the alleged offender, and Marshall stood down some of her team, but she carried on until after the incident.

"It was a long night," she said.

"It was a freezing night, our staff had been out there from 2 o'clock in the afternoon, so we have to make sure their welfare is considered as well and if it went on longer, we had to have a fresh team first thing in the morning."

The negotiation team used a relatively new piece of equipment, a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), to communicate with the alleged offender.

"The main thing is to build a rapport with them - to make sure we understand what their message is, why they're there, what's got them there today and just try to establish a conversation with them.

"He seemed reasonably surprised that we were there. He didn't think anything was an issue, anything had happened," Marshall said.

But getting the baby to safety proved to be a common goal.

"When you are in a situation like that and see Armed Offenders outside, this can be quite frightening and so when they've got a baby inside they want reassurance from us that nothing is going to happen.

"Hence why we have got to talk them through that, keep them calm and tell them that our main objective is to keep them safe. We are not out to harm babies and people."

The alleged offender wanted to speak to the negotiator face to face, Marshall said.

"Once a negotiator was outside the address and he was, we say 'voice appealing', talking to him, calling him, he came out and engaged with the negotiator and baby was safe and went back to mum and that was the end of it."

By 1.45am, it was confirmed that a man had been arrested.

Marshall said the teams "performed to a high standard".

"That outcome we got was the best outcome we could have hoped for. No one was harmed and it was a smooth operation."