Taupo shooting

Press, 18 August 1979, Page 1

Taupo shooting

PA 1 Rotorua Detectives investigating the killing of a service station attendant, who was shot at Turangi early on Thursday morning, are still looking at the possibility of a connection with an incident near Taupo early yesterday in which a man turned a gun on himself. The Turangi police last evening would make no further statement, though earlier yesterday police on the inquiry said they were waiting to question the wounded man, who is under guard in Taupo Hospital. They said the inquiry was continuing into the killing of Rodney Tahu, aged 32, who was found lying beside a petrol pump at the Turangi Service

Station, with three bullet wounds. A Taupo man, aged 38, whose name has not been released, was pinned down early yesterday morning by the Napier and Rotorua armed offenders squads on Lochinvar station, about 40km from Taupo. As he turned on to the station about 2.30 a.m. he encountered a road block, and stopped his vehicle some distance down the road. The police tried to negotiate with him, but he refused to leave his car. He shot himself about 6 am. and the police then moved in. He was taken to the Taupo Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for a head wound. Last evening he was re-

ported to be in a satisfactory condition. The police said the man had been charged with an offence involving the discharge of a firearm in Taupo on Wednesday night. The officer in charge of the Turangi inquiry, Detective Inspector L. D. Stinton, said yesterday he was waiting to question the man. Inspector Stinton said the police would like to hear from anyone who may have seen people in the area of the service station between midnight and 1.30 a.m. on Thursday. He said he would also particularly like to hear from bus and truck drivers who were accustomed to calling at the station at night.