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Home / New Zealand

MP to meet police over shooting response (+photos, video)

By Maggie Tait
NZPA·
10 Jun, 2008 02:30 AM5 mins to read

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Police inspect the Riverton Liquor store in Manurewa on Monday. Photo / Greg Bowker

Police inspect the Riverton Liquor store in Manurewa on Monday. Photo / Greg Bowker

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to phone 0508 RIVERTON or 0508-748-378.

Photo GalleryView footage here

videoVideo: Security footage of the shooting

KEY POINTS:

Manurewa MP George Hawkins is to meet police Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope this afternoon to raise community concerns around the killing of shopkeeper Navtej Singh.

Mr Singh, 30, died in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital 24 hours after being shot in cold blood by an armed gang robbing his Manurewa
liquor store of alcohol and cash on Saturday night.

Police are reviewing how long it took them to respond to the robbery after they held back an ambulance from reaching the store.

A friend of Mr Singh's said the delay was inhumane.

Police received the first 111 emergency call at 9.05pm but did not enter the store until 9.31pm.

As Mr Singh lost blood from massive internal bleeding after the bullet ruptured his aorta, St John paramedics were held back by police, entering at 9.38pm - 20 minutes after they arrived at a "safe point" at the scene.

Police later said they had to establish where the gunman was before they entered so no one else's life was put in anger.

As they waited, members of Mr Singh's family told 111 operators the gunman and the rest of his colleagues had long since departed.

Senior Sergeant Denise Traill this afternoon said at the same time there was another armed robbery at a service station at Otahuhu.

The senior policeman on duty in the area left one armed robbery to go to the second at Mr Singh's liquor store. Other police units were also redirected to the liquor store incident, she said.

Local community leaders have raised concerns about the level of policing in the area.

Mr Hawkins would meet Mr Pope as Commissioner Howard Broad was overseas.

"The Sikh community are really concerned at the delay in getting the ambulance there and why police took so long to let the ambulance in."

Detective Inspector Jim Gallagher told a media conference yesterday that there had been a number of armed robberies in Manurewa.

Mr Gallagher said a team has been established to investigate the robberies which may or may not be related to the shooting of Mr Singh.

"Without going into specifics, that is one of the areas that is looked at in the investigation process and analysing events for similarities," he said.

Mr Gallagher said there is an aggravated robbery in Counties Manukau every week on average.

"We've had business owners subjected to wanton violence in the course of robberies over many years but not regularly, thankfully," he said.

Sikh Council of New Zealand secretary Verpal Singh told nzherald.co.nz there had been eight robberies in Manurewa in the last two weeks alone and the community was frightened.

Mr Singh said a meeting of shop owners was being organised next week.

Some shop owners have been quoted in the media as saying that they were thinking of arming themselves but Mr Singh said that was "silly".

"I think that was said in the heat of the moment," he said.

Mr Singh said it was a reflection of the frustration and anger out there.

"But they are not keen on arming themselves. They understand that if the potential robber knows they are armed then they [robbers] will shoot first and talk later," Mr Singh said.

He said businesses were often family owned and operated and children often help out, creating more anxiety amongst owners.

"If they start feeling insecure and no longer feel safe and start moving out of these businesses, then that will have a social impact on society," Mr Singh said.

He said there was a point where people would no longer want to be involved in small owner/ operated businesses.

"Another option is to look at reducing hours late in the night. If shop owners agree that the impact on their income is not that much that they would be willing to risk their life for it," Mr Singh said.

He said he would also like to work with police but their response to burglaries was to ask if the offender was still in the area, and that needed to change. Mr Singh said if the offender had gone then police may turn up the next day.

"They're concerned namely about whether they can catch the thief or robber but there's no concern for the victim," Mr Singh said.

He said a woman whose house was burgled last week was asked to check her house to make sure no robbers were present. "Nobody is concerned that she's supposed to spend the night there," he said.

Mr Hawkins said he would also talk about crime generally in the Counties-Manukau area during his visit to the area.

He said it was up to police where it distributed officers.

"What I'll be telling them is the reaction of the community."

Mr Hawkins said he would give examples of problems with police responses, and ask questions from the community.

Mr Hawkins has been an effective local MP - it was his efforts that recently saw the Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill pass despite a select committee recommending it should not be enacted, and the Government introducing its own bill to deal with the problem.

- NZPA and NZHERALD STAFF

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