Hero used rugby league skills to bring down knifeman

Police tend to a man shortly after he was shot in the main street of Henderson yesterday. Picture / Murray Job / 3 News

The parking warden hero of yesterday's homicide in West Auckland told today how he used his rugby league skills to bring down a knifeman with a flying tackle.

The knifeman had already been shot, up to three times by police, after the fatal stabbing of 65-year heavy-vehicle driving instructor in the west Auckland suburb of Henderson about 1pm yesterday.

He refused an order by armed police to drop his knife and was shot three times but continued to advance on police, Pes Fa'aui, 35, a parking warden with the Waitakere City Council, told NZPA today.

"There was a pause and that is when I took the opportunity to tackle him from behind. He wasn't going to stop."

Mr Fa'aui ran at the man from about five metres away and used his rugby league skills to bring him down.

Mr Fa'aui and two other police officers subdued the shot man before he was taken to hospital where he was reported to be seriously hurt but stable after emergency surgery on his gunshot wounds.

Mr Fa'aui said he refused to accept he was a hero after his boss at the council, Colin Waite, said he was "extremely gutsy" and brave.

He said he decided when it was obvious the knife-wielding man was not going to stop advancing on the police he needed to be brought down and did not think about his own safety.

He said had he been facing the man he would have been scared.

"But because I tackled from behind he didn't know I was coming and I didn't feel in danger.'

He said he knew the man had to be brought down quickly.

"I had no room to make a mistake otherwise he could have used the knife on me."

When told that was a particularly brave act, he modestly gave credit to the police.

"Like I said, mate, all credit to the police. They deal with stuff like this every day and I just happened to be there at the time," said Mr Fa'aui, the father of six children aged from one to 11.

He said he felt briefly he may have been in danger.

"I was actually more concerned before the police came but I relaxed after the police officers arrived."

He said he was also very close to the bullets fired by police but did not want to talk about those details because the matter was going to court.

Mr Fa'aui retired last year after a long rugby league career for Waitemata and Glenora and said his tackling skills helped him bring the man down after he had been shot.


The drama began when a man walked into Norcross Fishing World in Henderson and began a violent struggle.

Manager Rob Norcross fought him off with a small ladder as the man tried to stab him. He was badly cut in the hand and shoulder before the man chased other people around the shop, took another knife and ran into the street.

There 65-year-old Kevan Bruce Newman was stabbed by the man and collapsed in a pool of blood. He died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

An armed police officer pointed his gun at the killer and shouted at him several times to put down the knife.

He refused and kept advancing on the police officer who backed away. Several shots were fired and it was thought the man was hit three times.

Witnesses said even with three police bullets in him, he refused to surrender.

Mr Fa'aui, who received five stitches in two fingers from injuries he received when he tackled the man, is no stranger to danger and risking his own life to help police.

Two or three months ago he helped police subdue a deranged man who was breaking windows in the area. He was eventually pepper sprayed by police.

Five years ago he chased some youths who had robbed a jewellery store.

They were not armed but Mr Fa'aui ran after the getaway car and jumped into the back seat.

"I tried to get the keys out. There weren't balaclavas or anything, they were a young couple on a shopping spree."

The driver locked the door and wound up the window to keep Mr Fa-aui out.

"So I opened the right rear door and hopped in the back. A police sergeant saw it from outside the court and ran up and stood in front of the car and ended up on the bonnet and then the driver stopped."

Mr Fa'aui said he was trying to defend himself in the back seat from the driver who was "trying to rough me up."

Mr Fa'aui said today it was rewarding to be able to help police but he also had a lot of admiration for what the police did.

He said everything that happened yesterday was overshadowed by the death "of that poor old man" and he wanted to pass his condolences to his family.

- NZPA