Kurariki's uncle rushes to help cops under attack

An uncle of Bailey Kurariki went to the aid of two police officers who had been set upon by a group of teenagers outside a drunken late-night party.

Amon West, whose nephew is New Zealand's youngest killer, was about to go to bed early on Saturday when he heard "a lot of yelling and swearing" outside his Ngaruawahia home.

He looked outside and saw a large group of teenagers throwing bottles at a couple of police officers and kicking their car.

Fearing for their safety, he called 111 and told them: "Send in your reinforcements.

"Then I saw one of them [the teenagers] hitting a police officer ... so I ran to the shed and grabbed a spade to go out and help," he said. "By the time I got there they had gone."

Mr West stayed with the injured pair, one of whom had been hit in the head with a pool cue. The other had a fractured hand.

Within a few minutes, more police were on the scene with a paddy wagon to help their colleagues.

Mr West said the two police officers were just trying to keep things quiet and do their jobs.

"Our town is pretty safe, but the kids need things to do. It doesn't help that they drink booze, though."

The two injured police officers - one a former teacher who had recently joined the force and the other a former British police officer - were pelted with bottles and cans and had to use pepper spray to defend themselves.

They were treated at Waikato Hospital.

A 17-year-old youth is to appear in Hamilton District Court this morning facing three charges of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The youth had celebrated his birthday the day before the incident.

Two other teenagers have been referred to Youth Aid in relation to intentional damage on the officers' patrol car.

The attack has strengthened calls from the president of the Police Association, Greg O'Connor, for frontline staff to have firearms available as an option in their cars at all times.

Mr O'Connor said more police were shot or assaulted in New Zealand than in Australia - where officers carry side arms.

"The logic is Australian police are armed ... New Zealanders feel unsafe because clearly if a police officer can't look after themselves, then how safe is the general public," he said.

"We are not saying arm, we are saying make firearms readily available so police officers in circumstances where they find themselves outnumbered ... have that extra capability."

Mr O'Connor said an opinion survey had shown that 50 per cent of police staff believed they should have firearms available to them. A slightly higher percentage of the public also agreed to arming the police.

Detective Sergeant Mata John of the Ngaruawahia CIB said the arrests were made after police searched a number of properties in the town over the weekend.

She said the community saw the attack as unacceptable.

"The family of one of those arrested put it best when they said, 'Not in our town, not to our cops'."