POLICE SHOOT AND WOUND ARMED MAN

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33693, 16 November 1974, Page 1

POLICE SHOOT AND WOUND ARMED MAN

The police shot a man during an armed confrontation In Geraldine Street, St Albans, last evening.

The man was taken by ambulance to Christchurch Hospital, and was admitted to the resuscitation ward. He was reported to be seriously ill this morning. His name was withheld.

The Police Armed Offenders Squad and armed detectives were called to the area after a taxi-driver reported seeing an armed man in Madras Street at 930 p.m.

Detective-Sergeant D. N. Scott said that when the police car arrived the man pointed a rifle at it. Residents of the area then heard two shots. The first was thought to have come from a pistol, and the second one was louder.

The man was seen collapsed in the middle of Geraldine Street, between Canon Street and Gresford Street. Detective Sergeant Scott aaid the police had been alerted earlier in the evening when a man telephoned them in a threatening manner. The man shot was well known to the police, he said. A number of armed uniformed policemen and armed detectives were at the scene when the man was shot A Geraldine Street resident, who declined to give his name, said he was standing nearby when the shots were fired. “A real blast” “A man standing across the road called out that the first shot seemed to hit a telegraph pole above him, sending down splinters. "Then came the second shot about 10 seconds later —it was a real blast and shook my stomach. When it went off I ran away.

“Before going back to my house I turned and saw a man lying in the middle of road. There was a rifle leaning against the police car.” The police car, a plain white Holden, was parked in Geraldine Street until police photographers arrived to record the scene. Telephone call At a special news conference at 11.30 p.m., the acting head of the Christchurch police district (Superintendent G. E. Twentyman) said the series of events began when the police operations room received a telephone call at 8.34 p.m. A caller said a man, whose name he refused to give, had a .22 rifle with “one up the spout” and 26 rounds of ammunition. The caller said the man was going to get a man, whose name the police would not release. The threatened man lived in Wilsons Road, Waltham, and was familiar with the armed man’s wife. The armed man had said that he did not care if a policeman shot him, the caller said. The police deployed to counter this threat, said Mr Twentyman, but the Armed Offenders Squad was not called out.

Forty-one minutes later, a taxi-driver reported to the police that a man with a firearm was in the Canon Street area.

Twenty minutes after this sighting, Sergeant M. Stevens, of the Armed Offenders Squad, was confronted and menacingly threatened by the person with a firearm, said Mr Twentyman. “The sergeant, who was armed, was with two others in a car. They backed off and attempted to cjivert traffic from the area.

“A short while later. Sergeant H. Surgenor, of the dog section, was also manacingly confronted by this person, and he also backed off. “Sergeant Surgenor did not leave his van. His dog was also left inside.

"About 9.45 p.m., another member of the armed offenders’ squad . was seriously threatened by this man. The member fired a warning shot with a .303 rifle over the man’s head/’ Shot in stomach

“Because the man continued walking forward with his rifle in a firing position the member of the Armed Offenders Squad was convinced that he would shoot. The member shot the armed offender, hitting him in the stomach or lower abdomen. “The man was shot from about 20ft’’ The police declined to release the name of the man who was shot because his next-of-kin had not been informed, and because of the possibility of charges being brought against him. The rifle was subsequently found to be loaded, with a cartridge in the firing chamber, he said. A woman telephoned the police later last evening to say she lived in the area where the man was shot, and had been threatened by a man carrying a .22 rifle about 7 p.m. The man was said to have been “pretty drunk” at the time, Mr Twentyman said. He mentioned to the woman something about an argument with his wife.

Mr Twentyman said the polic'e would gather all the information they could about the shooting, then decide what action, “if any,” would be taken.

Right: Detective Sergeant D. Scott, officer in charge at the scene of the shooting, shines his torch at the spot where the man fell after being shot by a policeman, who arrived in the car at right.