But CCTV footage of the incident, supplied to NZME, shows him standing in a T shape with his arms outstretched as the officers approach him.
“I wasn’t a threat.
“They say that I had my fists up and was trying to fight them, but that’s a lie,” he said.
When the officer pointed the Taser at him, Turner spun around to run and was shot in the back.
He then tripped on the kerb and fell to the ground before at least one officer landed on him and about seven others surrounded him.
The 30-year-old has since filed a complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority claiming excessive force.
However, the family say they have been left flummoxed after the IPCA referred their complaint back to police to investigate themselves, leaving them shocked and concerned.
Acting Hamilton City Area Commander Senior Sergeant Aimee Whitley told NZME police can’t comment as the matter was under investigation.
The IPCA confirmed it has referred the case to police to investigate and is “actively overseeing” that investigation.
It would then review the final report and provide feedback.
Drunk and rowdy
Turner admits being drunk and a bit rowdy when he was in Hamilton’s CBD on the evening of March 20.
As he was removed from Lucky Finns bar, he kept asking what he’d done wrong and spoke back to the officers, who then put him in the back of their van.
He continued asking them what he’d done wrong and asking for their badge numbers, before being dropped off outside Hamilton Central Police Station on Anzac Parade, with a trespass notice.
Two officers came out of the station and watched on as Turner then slapped the back of the van’s window as it drove off.
CCTV footage shows Turner walking back up the street. He then notices the two officers who had come out of the station.
An agreed summary of facts document said Turner was “yelling abuse” and “showing his arms in a way to signal he wanted to fight the constables”.
The CCTV then shows Turner standing in a T shape with his arms outstretched as the officers approach him.
As the officer presents a Taser, Turner spins around to run and is then shot with it.
In the statement of the officer who fired the stun gun, obtained by NZME, he states that Turner approached them “in a threatening manner with closed fists and puffing his chest upwards in an intimidating manner”.
When Turner had his arms out, “Turner’s face was one of malice when making this pose”.
The officer placed Turner as “assaultive” on the tactical options framework and fired the Taser, “to prevent him escaping and potentially assaulting others”, the statement said.
Turner was originally charged with disorderly behaviour and escaping custody.
His counsel, Mark Jepson, said the escaping charge was withdrawn after discussions with police and Turner was sentenced by Community Magistrate Kim Davies on the remaining charge.
Jepson suggested his client receive a fine, but after hearing what happened, Davies only issued a conviction and discharge.
‘I’d already surrendered’
Turner told NZME he got “pissed off” with the officers after they wouldn’t give him their names or badge numbers.
“It sort of set me off after that.
“So yeah, they tasered me after that, but he already had his Taser ready to go.
“You can see in the video he already had it out, but I’d already surrendered to them.”
Asked about the exchange with the officer as he was standing with his arms out, “they said, ‘you’re under arrest’.”
“I said, ‘oh all right yep’, put my arms up, and then as soon as they pulled the Taser up on me, that’s when I turned around and was like ‘oh hell no’.
Hamilton man Caleb Turner has lodged an IPCA complaint claiming excessive force was used. Photo / Mike Scott
“And then they shot me in the back.”
He then tripped and fell in the gutter and was then jumped on by at least one officer, from a group he hadn’t seen sprinting up the road.
Turner maintains he wasn’t a threat and disputes what was in the officer’s statement about him trying to fight them.
“I was walking off the road. I wasn’t even looking at them until they called out and said I was under arrest.
“They’re not telling the truth because I didn’t have my fists up trying to fight them because I wouldn’t try to fight the police, that’s just stupid.
“I was angry, I was frustrated … but I wasn’t trying to fight the police.”
‘He’s not doing anything wrong’
His mother Deborah Turner told NZME she was “shocked” by what she saw in the CCTV footage.
“You look at the video, and he’s not doing anything wrong.
“He’s got his arms up.”
She said it was confronting to see the group of police officers sprinting towards him.
“Even when you look at the video and you see police running towards him, Caleb didn’t know those [cops] were there.
“Caleb thought those ribs were broken because he’d fallen on the gutter when he was tasered … but he was jumped on.”
Caleb Turner stands in a T shape as police walk towards him before tasering him, as a group of Public Safety Officers sprint up the road.
She was also unimpressed with the officer’s statement.
“They said he was walking towards them with his fists up and chest puffed and that he was wanting to fight them.
“And that is absolutely false.
“So they covered their a*** because they didn’t think that we would get the CCTV.”
She said she was already a cynic about the IPCA, as she’d spoken with others who had all had their claims turned down, so filing the complaint was partially a box-ticking exercise.
However, despite that, when she got a response back from them in late June, saying they had referred it back to police for investigation, she was still “somewhat taken aback”.
“We find it somewhat concerning that the police will investigate themselves.
At least one officer is on top of Caleb Turner, while others sprint towards him, after he was shot with a Taser on Anzac Ave, Hamilton, in March.
“Their investigation will be passed on to the IPCA for their ‘overview of the adequacy of their investigation’.
“We would have thought that even if the police are doing the leg work, that all information would be fed back to the IPCA to make their conclusion.
“It seems the police hold all the strings in this.
“How do we know that what they report or put in their investigation is not flawed or bits left out?
“It seems very odd to us, and definitely not an independent investigation like it should be.”
She had looked up police policy on Tasers and found officers can’t taser someone for not being compliant.
“They can only taser them if they’re resisting arrest and being a threat to them.”
She told NZME she wants the officers to be held to account for their behaviour.
She also wants the case highlighted “to stop the institution from covering up what our police are doing to members of the public”.
“Police used to be trained in de-escalation, but now it seems they are the ones escalating problems within our community. This needs to be addressed through the police system.”
‘Four categories of complaint’
The IPCA wouldn’t comment on Turner’s case but in its latest annual report, it describes the categorisation of complaints.
Category A cases are deemed the most serious and are investigated by the IPCA. They usually involve death or serious injury, corruption or deliberate wrongdoing.
Category B is where police investigate with IPCA oversight. The IPCA then carries out a “full, independent review to confirm that all complaint issues have been addressed”.
Category C is where the issues are clear, there’s no investigation into police behaviour and the matter can be resolved “quickly, efficiently”.
Category D are cases of “no real substance”.
‘To be used when fear imminent harm’
NZME reviewed the police Taser “Use of Force” policy statement and principles, which stated officers should only show or use a Taser in accordance with the officer’s “perceived cumulative assessment of the circumstances and the subject’s behaviour at the time”.
An officer may use it “in situations where you fear imminent physical harm to yourself or some other person”.
“Once the likelihood of physical harm is no longer present, the use of Taser will no longer be necessary and therefore, no longer be reasonable.”
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.
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