KEY POINTS:
Neighbours of a man who was killed in front of his family during a home invasion in southeast Auckland last night say two men and a woman were apprehended by police at the scene.
A 27-year-old man died after being assaulted, bound and gagged during the invasion about
11pm in Kirikiri Lane at Botany Downs.
His partner and their three-year-old daughter were in the house when the attack occurred, and were said by police to be deeply traumatised.
Residents of the Botany Downs subdivision, which is about three years old and mainly made up of semi-detached townhouses, today told NZPA that three people were caught after trying to escape a police cordon.
One resident, who would only identify himself as Karl, said he became aware of police shortly after hearing people in his back courtyard and garage shortly after 11pm.
"I heard a crash in the backyard and I rang police soon afterwards," he said.
"I saw one of them get up onto the garage roofs and try to run across them. He jumped over a couple but tried to run over a perspex connection and he fell through it."
Karl said he saw police arrest two men, including the one who fell through the perspex, and one woman. He believed all three were Polynesian. The woman and one of the men seemed to be in their early 20s, and the third had large tattoos on his back.
He said police were already in the area when he called to notify them of the trespassers, and that the area was surrounded by about 50 police by about 11.10pm.
Police dogs, a security van and a police helicopter were involved in the operation, he said.
Police who interviewed Karl later told him the woman in the town house where the attack took place had called police while the offenders were at the home.
"They said they tried to escape as soon as police yelled for them to surrender because the place was surrounded."
He said the residents of the crime scene largely kept to themselves and did not know many of their neighbours. Often they had cars parked outside the house on its grass verge for some time.
There were security cameras around the subdivision, though he didn't believe any pointed down Kirikiri Lane.
A black body bag was removed on a stretcher about 2.10pm and driven away in a funeral director's station wagon from the scene.
The town house, which is about 500m from the large Botany Downs shopping complex, was cordoned off for most of today. At one time the scene was being guarded by a police officer armed with what neighbours said appeared to be a rifle.
Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Grimstone would neither confirm nor deny anyone had been caught by police at the scene.
Mr Grimstone told reporters that the dead man's partner had provided some helpful information to the inquiry and that they did not believe the attack was a random one.
He also said police believed there were three people involved in the home invasion.
Mr Grimstone earlier confirmed the man's partner and their three-year-old daughter were in shock after the attack.
"It doesn't get much worse than this," Mr Grimstone told NZPA.
"The woman and the child were there at the time and they are unbelievably shook up and traumatised by it."
Mr Grimstone hoped the camera footage would be of some help.
"We're doing the forensic thing, going door to door and we are trying to get some security footage," Mr Grimstone said.
"We haven't looked at the camera footage yet but we're hoping it can shed some light on what happened."
About 35 police were at the scene this morning.
Meanwhile, two men have been charged with murder following the discovery of a body in a south Auckland park yesterday morning.
Detective Senior Sergeant Richard Middleton said the men, aged 18 and 19, would appear in Manukau District Court tomorrow.
Mr Middleton also named the victim. He was Tolo Magele Pelenise Tofa, 33, of Otara.
Mr Tofa's body was found in Williams Park in Mangere at about 4am yesterday. He died from his injuries shortly after paramedics arrived.
"The death was not gang-related and there was quite a number of witnesses to it," he told NZPA.
He said the arrests were made through a combination of good police work and public assistance.
- NZPA