Patrol car shot at
PA Auckland A big team of police is still searching for a “highly dangerous’’ pair of men who blasted a police patrol car with a shotgun on the southern motorway early yesterday. The damaged car is shown above.
One of the few possible leads is an unknown driver of a yellow-green 1952 Ford Prefect who may have seen the shooting.
Detectives believe the driver slowed his car or stopped on the motorway near the incident and possibly saw what happened.
The search for the two men began on Monday afternoon when they stole a red Morris 1100 from the D.B. Mangere Tavern.
The car was seen by a security guard in Takanini at 1 a.m. yesterday. He flagged down a passing police car but the 1100 drove away when the police car was seen.
Two police constables in the patrol car then chased the 1100 north in the southbound lanes of the motorway. The offenders drove their car across to the correct lanes but lost control and crashed into a ditch.
As the police car pulled up beside the 1100, a man got out, stepped forward, and fired a shot at the left front guard of the police car. The shot ricocheted off the bonnet. No-one was hurt. The two men then marched both constables up
the motorway at gunpoint and attempted to hijack their vehicle. The constables, who had the keys, managed to escape.
The two gunmen then went to nearby Grams Road, where, detectives said, they menaced a man with the shotgun and took his car. They later crashed this car at Wiri. and made off on foot.
About 20 members of the armed offenders squad were called out and searched the area for about seven hours, without success.
Detective Senior-Sergeant K. McMinn said the police urgently wanted to speak to the driver of the Prefect for any clues relating to .the incident.
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Press, 5 August 1981, Page 6
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319Patrol car shot at Press, 5 August 1981, Page 6
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