Police defend result in shooting inquiry

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 6

Police defend result in shooting inquiry

PA Wellington The police dog handler who shot and killed a suspected murderer, John Morgan, last Christmas Eve believed he had been shot when struck by an axe thrown by Mr Morgan, said the police officer who investigated the shooting, Chief Superintendent S. B. McEwen, yesterday. Mr McEwen said he was angered by criticism of the police investigation by Labour and Social Credit spokesmen. “Obviously, the combination of the blow and the involuntary discharge of the pistol (by the. dog-handler when hit with th‘e axe) made him confused,” Mr McEwen said of the police dog handler.

Social Credit’s spokesman on law and justice, Mr Mar-

tin Hine, and a Labour member of Parliament, Mr Trevor Young, have both said that a court and jury should decide the guilt or innocence of the policeman on a charge of manslaughter. Mr McEwen said it was obvious the politicians had no conception of the inquiry carried out or the . facts of the incident.

He had investigated Mr Morgan’s death as a homicide. Before anyone could be charged, it had to be decided if it was culpable, he spid. TThe 1981 amendment.to the Crimes Act had redefined self-defence and it was necessary to show that the death had been a blameworthy one. There had to be evidence that a crime had been committed and in

the Morgan case there had been no such evidence, Mr McEwen said. The Commissioner of Police, Mr R. J. Walton, said yesterday that the suggestion of a trial was foreign to the whole system of justice.

Mr Walton said a court appearance required a charge to be laid, “and to proceed to hearing without evidence to establish guilt, as is the position in this case, would be nonsensical.”

Mr Hine said the police handling of the incident had been insensitive • The Solicitor-General, Mr D. P. Neazor, Q.C. studied the police file on the shooting and decided that the use of the firearm had been reasonable and that no prosecution should be brought. .