The mum of a young man shot dead by police is seeking High Court intervention over the decision not to charge her son’s killer.
Jillian Hana lodged the application for judicial review after police decided not to charge or take disciplinary action against the officer who shot and killed her son Kaoss Price, 22, near New Plymouth in April 2022.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) later found the shooting to be unjustified and that excessive force was used.
Price was a Nomad gang member with a warrant out for his arrest. In the days leading up to his death, police had been alerted to Price having possible access to firearms and knives.
On the night he died, police pulled over a BMW to which Price had been linked – not knowing he was trailing behind in a Volkswagen. While Price initially sped away, he returned at high speed with no headlights and raced past police before turning and racing towards police again.
On that occasion, an officer in the dog van – who told the IPCA he believed Price was “hunting” them and using his car as a weapon – fired shots from the driver’s seat as the VW scraped along the side of the van. Price’s car stopped and he abandoned it in the road, sprinting up the highway in search of a new vehicle.
After failing to take one car, he dived through the open driver’s window of a blue Hyundai, landing on the driver’s lap while forcing the accelerator as the driver fought to hold the brake.
At this point, from about 3m away, one officer fired a single shot into Price’s chest. As he convulsed, his arm dropped outside the window, he was bitten by the dog and hit with a Taser. Price died at the scene.
The police investigation ended in August 2023 with a finding that the killing was “legally justified” and no charges would be laid.
Then in November 2024, the IPCA report found the fatal shot was unjustified but there was no reasonable prospect of convicting the officer, saying police should not lay charges.
In a statement, Price’s whānau said the IPCA finding was striking as there was only one other case since 1990 in which the oversight agency found a fatal police shooting unjustified.
Christopher Stevenson KC, who represents Price’s whānau alongside Julia Spelman, said: “We’re aware this filing comes amid growing public concern about police investigating themselves.
“When the state entrusts police to exercise lethal force, and then to investigate their own actions, they must be held to the same standard as every other New Zealander would be. Especially when those actions result in the death of a young man.”
The judicial review alleges breaches of natural justice, a lack of transparency and failures in the independence of the investigation.
It will ask the court to issue orders forcing police to again consider its decision, release key documents, and comply with legal duties under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the Victims’ Rights Act.
“The failure to prosecute, and the lack of transparency around that decision, are now subject to High Court review,” said Stevenson.
Price’s family did not wish to comment at this stage.
Territorial Detective Superintendent Uraia Vakaruru said: “Police acknowledge the filing of the judicial review. Police will work with the court to determine what may be required of us.”
Price had more than 30 convictions for offences including theft, car conversion, assault, burglary and driving offences.
He was also a father who left a grieving family who spoke to the Herald at the time about their pain – and confusion over why he had been shot.
“The cop needs to be held accountable like any one of us would be,” Price’s grandmother Margaret Kennard told the Herald.
The officer who killed Price fired a total of six shots during the incident which included one final shot as Price attempted to drive away in the seized car.
The IPCA found police justified to have fired at Price during the ramming and as he ran towards stationary cars, accepting the officer genuinely believed there was an imminent risk of death or serious injury, had only seconds to react, and had no practical other options.
The critical finding related to the final shot, fired as Price lay across the top of the driver. The IPCA found the risk Price was armed with a firearm at that point was “remote” and using a pistol at close range in a confined space could have injured or killed others in the car.
The IPCA finding that the decision to shoot was unjustified was made by a “fine margin”. It also found the evidence did not meet the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt and so there was no reasonable prospect of convicting the officer. On that basis, it did not recommend criminal charges.
While excessive force was serious misconduct under the Police Code of Conduct, the IPCA said too much time had passed and it would be a breach of the officer’s right to natural justice because police had told him he would not face an employment investigation.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
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