{"id":156497,"date":"2025-11-27T15:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/156497\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T15:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:02:10","slug":"armed-man-tasered-after-threatening-mum-and-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/156497\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed man tasered after threatening mum and baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bill Hickman of RNZ<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wellington police were justified in tasering an armed man who suffered a serious head injury after he fell on the road, its watchdog says.<\/p>\n

Police were called to reports that a man, who was armed with a blade from a pair of hedge trimmers, had trapped a woman and her baby in a bus stop in Cockayne Rd, in the suburb of Khandallah, just after midday on January 9 this year.<\/p>\n

One person who called police told operators the man – referred to in the report as Mr Z – was “out of control”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got a situation at bus stop 4411 on Cockayne Road. I’ve got a bleeding woman with a distraught child. I’ve got a man who’s out of control, he’s violent, he’s tearing up the bus stop,” the caller said.<\/p>\n

The Independent Police Conduct Authority’s report said “a hacking sound” could be heard over the line as the man struck the bus stop.<\/p>\n

Five police surrounded the bus stop and the woman was able to slip out with her child as an officer attempted to speak to the man.<\/p>\n

As the man tried to follow the woman onto the road an officer fired their taser, but the weapon appeared to have no effect.<\/p>\n

“[The man] stopped and turned to face the officers, as though he was preparing to confront them. At this point, [he] was approximately three to four metres away from the officers, holding the bladed weapon at a 45 degree angle,” as outlined in a summary of a witness’s cell phone footage.<\/p>\n

Officers yelled “Taser! Taser! Taser!” and the footage recorded two loud bangs as two officers fired their tasers at the man.<\/p>\n

“In response, Mr Z became rigid and fell to the ground. His head hit the tarmac surface of the road. This interaction lasted about five seconds from the moment Mr Z started following [the woman], until he fell to the ground,” the report stated.<\/p>\n

Judge Kenneth Johnston, KC, said police acted out of genuine concern for the safety of the woman and child, themselves and other bystanders.<\/p>\n

“The video footage shows that Mr Z adopted an aggressive stance, looking as if he was preparing to fight with the officers. Communication with Mr Z was ineffective.<\/p>\n

“Officers cannot be expected to use open-hand tactics against someone armed with a bladed weapon. Mr Z was using the weapon in a threatening manner.<\/p>\n

“Additionally, Officer B correctly assessed that four metres could be quickly closed and locked by Mr Z, which would put the officers at significant risk,” Johnston wrote.<\/p>\n

Officers wasted no time in requesting medical attention for the man once he had fallen.<\/p>\n

“Police radio transmissions record that at 12.07 pm, Officer A informed Comms that Mr Z was tasered.<\/p>\n

“Sixteen seconds later, Comms was informed that Mr Z had sustained a serious head injury, and a request for an ambulance was made. Comms informed the officers that an ambulance had already been contacted … and was en route to their location,” Johnston wrote.<\/p>\n

He concluded he was satisfied the officers had followed police policies on taser use and were justified in their actions.<\/p>\n

In a statement, acting Wellington District Commander Inspector Nick Thom said officers assessed the situation, and responded accordingly, to ensure the safety of the public.<\/p>\n

“Officers deployed their tasers to stop a dangerous situation evolving into something that could have been much worse. Our officers have made good decisions and the IPCA investigation supports that,” Thom said.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the incident, Detective Senior Sergeant Tim Leitch confirmed the child was uninjured and the woman had been treated for a minor injury.<\/p>\n

The IPCA report said the woman suffered a deep cut to her thumb when – at some point – she pushed the man’s weapon away from her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bill Hickman of RNZ\u00a0 Wellington police were justified in tasering an armed man who suffered a serious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-156497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}