Agonising delay before contacting gunman

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 10

Agonising delay before contacting gunman

PA Palmerston North The radio broadcaster, Mr Jon Hogan, could not get through on the phone to Palmerston North’s siege gunman for 10 minutes on Tuesday after the gunman

told police he wanted to give himself up. “I was a nervous wreck during that 10 minutes. My hands were shaking. My stomach was in a knot,” Mr Hogan said yesterday.

When he got word from the police that the 20-year-old gunman was prepared to free the hostage, Bonita Rowberry, aged 18, if he was allowed on air, Mr Hogan rang the gunman, but the line was busy. “That was the only time he was allowed on air. It was pretty scary because I had no idea what he wanted to say, or what would happen,” said Mr Hogan.

“He was really up and down during that three to three and a half minutes.

“I wouldn’t really want to repeat that. He was very tired, and under a lot of stress, but the impression I got was that he didn’t want his name all over the place.

“In fact I only referred to him as ‘tiger tooth.’ “All he wanted to say was that he was sorry. The big thing, as far as I was concerned, was to sound calm, and go along with what he wanted.”

Mr Hogan, a broadcaster for eight years, said he was filling in because the regular announcer, Mr Mike

West, was on holiday. Joan and Peter Flynn watched from their Wood Street house as the drama ended just across the road. Mr Flynn saw a woman come out of the house, carrying a rifle, and walk down the long driveway.

. Seconds later she was picked up by a police car which rushed her away.

A few minutes later both Mr and Mrs Flynn saw a man come out with his hands in the air. “After he’d been standing there for quite a while the police must have directed him over, because he moved out of my line of vision,” Mr Flynn said. Mr and Mrs Flynn stayed in their house throughout the 20-hour seige, and praised the way the police handled it. “In a lot of countries there’d have been a great explosion, and they’d have dragged out two bodies,” Mr Flynn said. “It has been quite impressive, the quietness and the discipline of the police.”