• Full Story

Family of slain courier driver may sue police

Email
Print

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 1:17p.m.

Halatau Naitoko's partner Stephanie Cook with their daughter at his funeral in 2009 (NZPA)

Halatau Naitoko's partner Stephanie Cook with their daughter at his funeral in 2009 (NZPA)

The family of slain courier company driver Halatau Naitoko are likely to sue police for compensation.

Mr Naitoko, 17, was shot dead by police who were chasing Stephen Hohepa McDonald who was brandishing a gun on Auckland's Northwestern Motorway on January 23 2009.

The Naitoko family's lawyer Colin Pidgeon told the Herald on Sunday the family was likely to sue police once the inquest into Mr Naitoko's death is complete.

Mr Pidgeon said it was possible the coroner conducting the inquest would recommend the officer who fired the fatal shot be prosecuted for manslaughter.

Coroner Gordon Matenga reserved his findings at the inquest in Auckland Coroner's Court in March, but he will hear further evidence on December 20.

McDonald, who had been on a crime rampage at the time of the shooting, was last year jailed for 13 years on 23 charges.

NZPA

Become a fan of 3 News on Facebook and on Twitter.

Post a Comment

Before commenting, please take the time to read our moderation guide


(Won't be published)



Comments

21 Dec 2010 01:27a.m.

jan.. wrote:

A seventeen year old innocence man was shot dead by a police firearm while chasing criminals that could have been avoid by stopping the pursuit..
The criminals often caught so why waisting our tax payers money and who is paying for this family demands on compensation for the loss of their love ones, just hope the family don't shoot you in return for their love one's life you took..
How many more dead sueing compensation, are we plublican to pay for your mistakes? NO' rethink..
You may have been in the force for 37 years and the other police served 35 years in police force was injured by a 14 and an 18 year old, he should not have been on duty alone knowing our country are full of intruders..(terrorist can act from all different angles, take care and stop shooting the innocence people or don't bother having guns, we are all aware that gun will kill our innocent people and whoever wanted firearms are must probably terrorist, bless the innocence..

21 Nov 2010 10:30p.m.

Todd wrote:

They shouldn't have to sue the police, the police should have paid them out already. The person responsible is the police officer, why was he shooting at Halatau? Was it because he was brown? It wasn't an accident, the police officer deliberately shot at Halatau

21 Nov 2010 05:18p.m.

martin wrote:

i agree with the above comment the person who is responsible for this whole tragic accident is now in prison and i am sure that the policemen who fire that fatal shoot will live with the notion that he took a innocent mans life and thats something that no one would like to live with , so as a country lets stop blaming the ones who try to uphold the law and start to look at the ones who are truly responsible and start to hold them accountable because if he(Stephen Hohepa McDonald) hadn't run in the 1st place none of this wouldn't have happen

21 Nov 2010 01:49p.m.

Lightseed wrote:

one person is to blame for this death and only one, and he is in prison. This lawsuit will be the result of some greedy lawyer scraping the bottom of the life gene pool