On 13 January 2023, the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) executed an arrest warrant for a man at a rural property near Kaeo. Police had information that the man had a firearm and posed a significant risk to their safety. Police had also invoked a warrantless search power to search the property for firearms.
During the operation, the AOS surrounded the property and called to the occupants to come out of the house. At the rear of the house, a man (not the person whom Police were there to arrest) was yelling abuse at Police. An officer told the man to come out of the house, or he would be arrested for obstruction. The man came to an open back door but refused to comply with the officer’s instructions.
After telling the man that he was under arrest for obstruction, the officer grabbed the man and pulled him out of the house. The man resisted being handcuffed and was taken to the ground. During the course of his arrest, the man sustained a head injury. He claimed that the officer had assaulted him.
After his arrest, Police bandaged the man’s head and left the property.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that:
• The officer used reasonable and proportionate force to pull the man out of the house and to restrain him on the ground.
• There is no evidence of the use of excessive force. We are unable to determine what caused the man’s head injury.
• Police breached their ‘head injury’ policy by not providing the required medical care for the man’s head injury.
