{"id":514443,"date":"2026-07-07T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514443\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:30:15","slug":"police-cleared-in-orere-point-death-but-some-force-ruled-unreasonable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514443\/","title":{"rendered":"Police cleared in \u014crere Point death but some force ruled unreasonable"},"content":{"rendered":"
However, the IPCA did find that two instances of force had been unreasonable and not justified \u2013 one officer punching him in the head three times and the use of the \u201cfishhook\u201d technique.<\/p>\n
The \u201cfishhook\u201d technique involves putting fingers into someone\u2019s mouth to force pain compliance.<\/p>\n
They also found officers spoke to Matue inappropriately and unprofessionally during the arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou fat c*** [indecipherable] back in the water and just drown, you f***ing idiot\u201d, one policeman can be heard saying in the footage.<\/p>\n
Faasala Matue died after threatening police with a metal pole and biting an officer\u2019s hand at \u014crere Point, Auckland, before being tasered, pepper-sprayed and losing consciousness. <\/p>\n
Police have acknowledged the IPCA\u2019s findings, with Counties Manukau District Commander Superintendent Shanan Gray describing the officers\u2019 language and unjustified use of force as \u201cunacceptable and a departure from our values\u201d.<\/p>\n
Police had tracked a vehicle linked to two aggravated robberies from Papakura to the isolated beach, where Matue and another man were found.<\/p>\n
Gray said officers had been faced with a difficult situation as Matue behaved aggressively while resisting his arrest, threatening them with a metal pole and biting one officer\u2019s finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to acknowledge our staff who were dealing with an extremely volatile and confronting incident at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cForce was used to try and bring Mr Matue under control, during which he bit the finger of an attending officer.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said Matue\u2019s condition had deteriorated after the arrest. Officers administered first aid at the scene but were unable to save him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a tragic outcome for everyone concerned and our thoughts are with Mr Matue\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray said he would not comment on the specifics of the employment process and confirmed the officers involved were all still employed by police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, the IPCA did find that two instances of force had been unreasonable and not justified \u2013 one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[682,3013,25598,53868,634,16840,5760,1874,78,296,12898,111,43,139,69,423,675,103805,24684,544,103106,84535],"class_list":["post-514443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-being","tag-but","tag-cleared","tag-contribute","tag-death","tag-filmed","tag-force","tag-found","tag-in","tag-into","tag-investigation","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-point","tag-police","tag-rere","tag-ruled","tag-some","tag-tasered","tag-unreasonable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514443","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=514443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}