Guns Trained On Constable In Darkened Store

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32010, 10 June 1969, Page 30

Guns Trained On Constable In Darkened Store

(New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH, June 9. A confrontation between an Eketahuna police constable and two armed men in a store in the town about 1.55 a.m. on April 28 was described in the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court today, when the two men faced charges of attempted murder.

The defendants, Kahu Henare Power, aged 20, a shearer, and Roderick James Murphy, aged 19, a driver, both pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody by Mr J. R. P. Horn, S.M., for trial in the Palmerston North Supreme Court on June 23.

They were also remanded for trial to the same date after they pleaded not guilty to a joint charge of burgling the premises of Wright Stephenson and Company in Eketahuna, on April 28. Mr K. H. Mason appeared for Power, and Mr J. H. Williams for Murphy. Mr J. A. Ongley prosecuted for . the Crown. The two are alleged to have attempted to murder Constable Bruce Graham McKenzie at the Wright Stephenson store. Giving evidence, Constable McKenzie said he was called to the store about 1.55 a.m. He heard a noise, and after entering the store through a smashed plate-glass window, he noticed that some rifles and shotguns were missing from a display stand. “I heard a noise from the back of the shop so I drew my revolver,” said Constable McKenzie. “I moved towards the noise, at the same time shining my torch. When 1 reached the end of the hardware counter I shone my torch into the corner and saw a man standing behind the counter. He had a double-bar-rel shotgun held to his right shoulder”

At this point of his evidence Constable McKenzie was indisposed for a few seconds, and rested on a chair before resuming in the witness box. “I could see him pulling the triggers with the fingers of his right hand,” he said. “I called on him to put it down, and raise his hands in the air. I shone the torch at him, but he was still attempting to pull the triggers. I was about 16ft from him. “Then I saw another movement, and a man stepped out. He had a rifle in his hand, and raised it to his shoulder. He appeared to be trying to fire it at me.

“I called on them both to put their weapons down and raise their hands. The shotgun was still pointed at me. “They both put them on the counter after some hesitation and I made them lie with their faces on the floor.” Constable McKenzie said Power had a shotgun and Murphy a .22. rifle. After switching the lights on he discovered two live shells in the shotgun, which had its safety catch in an "on” position.

The breech of the rifle was jammed open with a live bullet, and there were seven live shells in the magazine. A single-barrelled shotgun was on the counter with a live shell in the breech. Constable McKenzie said he found a box of shotgun shells with three shells missing from it on the counter, and an unopened box in Murphy’s pocket. He also found four boxes of .22 ammunition, one of which was incomplete “Power said to me, ‘You are lucky I could not get that gun to go off, boy, or you would be a dead duck,’ ” said the witness. “Murphy then said, ‘What went wrong with you, I had a bead on him, and my bloody rifle wouldn’t Are either.’ ”

Murphy had then added: “If I had on’, thought quick enough, I could have got the single-banger and plugged him with that.”

Later, said Constable McKenzie, Murphy had asked why his rifle did hot fire because it had worked earlier. The witness said he found a damaged .22 bullet near the front of the shop, and noticed a mark on the ceiling which appeared to have been made by a bullet. To Mr Williams, Constable McKenzie said he was in full uniform, and wearing a police forage cap. Robert John Pittaway, manager of the nearby branch of the Bank of New Zealand, said he wa_ awakened by the sound of breaking glass early on the morning of April 28. He said he thov.jht at the time that it came from Wright Stephenson’s, but checked the bank before calling the police. He saw glass on the footpath near the store at the side window of the entrance to the grocery department. He entered the shop a few minutes after Constable McKenzie arrived. He saw two men lying on the floor in front of the counter, and three guns lying on the counter.

Asked to describe the conversation between the two accused, Mr Pittaway said there was “quite a lot” of obscene language. “They mentioned the guns were loaded, and that they had difficulty operating them. One of them said he had drawn a bead on the copper, but the gun wouldn’t go off.” The manager of Wright Stephenson’s, Charles Vincent King, said that when he was called to the shop about 3 a.m. he was asked by Constable McKenzie to help guard the two men, who were handcuffed.

“One of them complained that the guns wouldn’t work, and it was also said, ‘I could have got him when he came round the comer.’” Mr Mason: Did you get the impression there was an air of bravado about them?—At the time, yes. Publication of statements made to Detective Sergeant W. J. Ross, of the Palmerston North C. 1.8., by the accused was prohibited by the Magis-

trate. Counsel objected to the admission of the statements. Mr Mason said his objection was based mainly on the question of whether his client was in a fit state to make a statement. “It is a question of liquor being involved,” he added. Mr Williams said he objected for Murphy on the same ground.

The two accused also appeared for sentence on joint charges of burglary and theft, and on separate charges of car conversion (Murphy) and unlawfully entering a car and converting a tractorloader (Power). They had previously admitted these charges. The Magistrate declined jurisdiction.