By Michael Morrah
A report written by a retired Superintendent has criticised police for continuing the pursuit of an offender that ended in the death of an innocent courier driver.
The report was released during the inquest into the death of 17-year-old Halatau Naitoko.
Neville Matthews has 37 years experience in the police and his opinion about the chase the lead to Halatau’s death is clear and uncompromising.
“In my view, based on my experience, that pursuit should have been abandoned,” he said.
“The pursuit was a danger to the police and it was a danger to the public.”
Matthews was asked by the Coroner to review evidence relating to the pursuit of Stephen McDonald in January last year.
The pursuit ended with police mistakenly shooting Halatau, a courier driver and young father.
In a 32 page report, Matthews stated:
There was no tactical reason to have up to 20 police vehicles pursuing McDonald
The pursuit controller did not ask enough question of the officers to make informed decisions
Using road spikes should have been given more consideration
Halatau’s family welcomed the re-examination of details.
“For the family, it is answering some of those ‘ifs’. If he had done this and if he had done that – obviously the material from Mr Matthews is helpful for us,” says Naitoko family spokesperson Peter Sykes.
Inspector William Taylor, who controlled the pursuit said in his view, Matthews failed to give enough weight to the dangerous, unpredictable nature of McDonald – who had taken a cocktail of drugs.
“I am being criticised for not calling off the pursuit,” says Mr Taylor.
“But had I done so, and McDonald had gone on to harm one or more members of the public, I may have suffered even greater criticism.”
Mr Taylor said even if the pursuit had been called off, it is unlikely McDonald would have behaved in a rational manner.
Mr Taylor was also criticised for waiting 11 minutes before the commander of the Armed Offenders Squad was contacted about the incident.
In response to that, he said he wanted to confirm reports that a firearm was involved.
The inquest is expected to finish tomorrow afternoon, December 21.
3 News