Good : Woman shot dead by police (New Zealand)

[heylin]

Woman shot dead by police
Fairfax Media | Thursday, 23 October 2008

LATEST: A woman is dead after being shot by police during a hostage drama in a Whangarei shop this morning.

The incident is believed to have started shortly after 9am when a woman with a gun went into the First Mobile Vodafone shop in Reyburn St, Whangarei. Armed police were called.

A witness said when the woman opened the door of the shop about an hour later she was shot by one of the police armed offenders squad, crouched behind a car across the road.

An hour later she was still lying in the shop where she had fallen and not moving. Witness Michelle West, 19, said the woman appeared to be dead. "She is not moving. She is dead," Ms West said.

A source close to the incident said the lady brandishing the shot gun looked to be 'spaced out' on drugs. Only one staff member was inside the building at the time of the incident.

He emerged some time after the shot was fired and after armed offenders squad had entered the building Eyewitness Arthur McKechnie earlier described seeing a dreadlocked woman with a shotgun.

"I saw a lady come out holding a shot gun, she opened the door and went back in but 10 minutes later there was a shot," he said.
"There is an ambulance there and they have called another ambulance," he said.

A staff member from Northland Mitsubishi, across the road from the incident, said the woman came outside briefly before going back in to the shop.She was described as being short, Maori with dreadlocks.

Staff at Northland Mitsubishi said police had told them she had "multiple guns" and one single shot was fired around 10.30am.
Several eyewitnesses say the incident now appears to be under control.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[heylin]

Not very often this happens in NZ. Our police have only shot dead a handful of people in the last decade.

For those of you taht havent seen our Armed Offenders Squad before heres a pic, they are pretty much equivalent to your swat teams but also trained to pursue suspects through our dense bush and forestry, not just urban scenarios.

[Paco]

They called the NZ SWAT team for one crazed lady? Do the "regular" Police have weapons on them?

[heylin]

They called the NZ SWAT team for one crazed lady? Do the "regular" Police have weapons on them?

Our regular cops on the beat dont have weapons (only pepper spray, baton and cuffs).

There are mobile units which serve as mobile armoury in case they need to respond to an armed situation, these carry tasers, glock 17s, Bushmasters and rifles.

Armed offenders in any case are eventually called for all armed situations, by the time the cops on scene are armed, offenders squad are only minutes away.

Our regular cops only do 2 days firearm training per year and arent really trained to handle hostage situations.

In retrospect though we dont have many armed incidents like this, our police have only ever killed a few people in the last decade.

[laeckcrov]

Our regular cops on the beat dont have weapons (only pepper spray, baton and cuffs).

Our regular cops only do 2 days firearm training per year and arent really trained to handle hostage situations.

Just like the Good 'ole UK, the police are next to worthless.

Almost makes you wish you hired Gecko... Almost

[goldshellback]

Almost makes you wish you hired Gecko... Almost

Now, now.....we CANNOT have the Kiwi Nation turning into a Ninja Police State!

Tough call answering an 'armed woman' call and having shooting her dead. Sounds like not much choice was given to the responding Armed Offenders Squad.

[heylin]

And our next government think adding another 600 officers will reduce crime :)

yeah right

a) we dont give them the right tools for the job

b) we slap all sorts of restrictions on them on how they can handle situations, basically the perp has more rights than the victims and cops have to tread carefully so as not to upset the criminal.

c) we dont have harsh enough laws to prevent new offending and re-offending, basically were runing a catch and release programme that is costing us more in legal proceedings than it would to lock them up for an extra year or 2.

One idea ive always had is to contract out our prison system to say Thailand, it costs $96,000NZ per year to keep 1 inmate, if you gave that to Thailand you could keep the same inmate in the Bangkok Hilton for 2 mabey 3 times longer at no extra cost to the NZ tax payer, and the Thai government would welcome the extra income.

Crime would plummet, as instead of 8 years for murder youd be facing 16+ in a Thai prison, not many perps would last long in a Thai jail.

[JAT40]

Wow, spaced out, wild New Zealand, dread-locked woman on drugs on a rampage with multiple guns, shot by bushwhacking SWAT team. Scary, and I was going to go their on vacation, think I'll stay in the USA where it's safe.

[heylin]

and I was going to go their on vacation, think I'll stay in the USA where it's safe.

Trust me, you would be alot safer here, as Ive said before, these things are highly rare, you are more likely to be involved in a car accident here then you are to be involved in a violent crime or even minor crime for that matter.

As a tourist you wouldnt even be in the places where these things occur.

Same rules here apply as the US

1) avoid known bad areas
2) dont walk out after 10pm when all the drunken people are out looking for fights
3) lock your car and hide valuables when youre in tourist areas

Please do come over for a vacation, im quite happy to play tour guide and take people for shoot if they ever want to come over for a holiday.

Only rule I have is you must pay for your own ammo :)

[ryanjensen]

Crime would plummet, as instead of 8 years for murder youd be facing 16+ in a Thai prison, not many perps would last long in a Thai jail.

What do you mean "8 years for murder" ... you can't possibly mean only eight years in prison for premeditated first-degree murder, right? Right?

Please tell me I'm right.

[Paco]

I can kind of understand that, if these things are rare there. But at least give the Cops more than OC spray and a stick. At least a slingshot or something. What if a regular Cop comes across a group of dread locked women bent on killing someone, they won't have time to call the Cops with guns, they'll just die.

[Guns and more]

Woman shot dead by police
Fairfax Media | Thursday, 23 October 2008

LATEST: A woman is dead after being shot by police during a hostage drama in a Whangarei shop this morning.


An hour later she was still lying in the shop where she had fallen and not moving. Witness Michelle West, 19, said the woman appeared to be dead. "She is not moving. She is dead," Ms West said.

An hour later? What were they waiting for?

[heylin]

The hostagehad already exited, no doubt they waited an hour for a forensics team before moving the body. Over here they need to do an investigation to vindicate the officer who shot the woman, and so the relatives dont have any reasons to take legal action against police , the poilce need to prove exactly what went down to protect themselves

[heylin]

What do you mean "8 years for murder" ... you can't possibly mean only eight years in prison for premeditated first-degree murder, right? Right?

Please tell me I'm right.

Sorry manslaughter is about 8 (or less) with parole, 18 for murder, but sometimes less if they get parole.

One of our more recent cases was Graham Burton, he got out on parole and went on a killing spree pretty much straight away. He killed a mountain biker while running from poilce, police shot him and he lost his leg (tax payer will have to pay for that). Anyway hes back inside and no doubt wont be out again for another 18 years (no parole).

Still why should someone who has killed twice be allowed out in 18 years anyway

[laeckcrov]

Still why should someone who has killed twice be allowed out in 18 years anyway

Why should someone who has killed someone once be allowed to live? Or for those of you who don't support the death penalty, why should he get out of prison ever?