It is a black day for New Zealand's police force. They have admitted this afternoon that the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) killed an innocent teenage father in yesterday's motorway shootout.
Seventeen-year-old Halatau Naitoko, known as Tau, was shot in the chest as police attempted to stop a gun-toting offender who had just led them on a high-speed chase around Auckland.
A post-mortem on his body revealed the police had made a fatal mistake.
"The ballistics expert has advised us that the bullet that killed Naitoko was from a police issue firearm," Auckland Assistant Commissioner Steve Shortland said at a news conference this afternoon.
Mr Naitoko was driving his courier van on the North Western Motorway when he was caught up in a high speed chase.
It is believed a rampaging gunman, 50-year-old Stephen Hohepa McDonald, pointed a gun at him and the police.
Police have established that four shots were fired from an M4 rifle belonging to a member of the AOS.
A stray shot hit Mr Naitoko, and he died from a single entry wound to his chest. Another bullet hit another innocent motorist, truck driver Richard Neville.
"It appears that he may have received shrapnel wounds from a bullet hitting his truck," said Mr Shortland. "We're not sure where that bullet came from, because it hasn't been analysed yet."
The offender was also shot by police. He was charged with failing to stop, and is under police guard in Auckland hospital.
"He's in hospital being treated for shrapnel wounds to his chest and back," says Mr Shortland. "He'll be spoken to next week."
The Police Association says the officers involved had no choice.
"They did their best, but now those officers, you can imagine how they're feeling," says Greg O'Connor. "But they have done their job. Those officers were doing what every officer joins the police to do - protecting the public to stop a dangerous, armed offender."
Mr Naitoko's family have now heard the news that it was actually a police bullet that killed their family member. Tau's mother Ivoni Fuimaono told 3 News that she had planned to go to work with her son and if she had, she would have been in the same courier van when the shooting happened.
The family gathered together at the family home in Mangere to try to console each other.
Mr Naitoko's grandmother was the last to speak with him.
"He came in to get his van to go to work and got water to clean up his van," says Matalupe Fuimaono, "and I said, 'Hurry up, don't waste the water, we get too much water bills,' and he said, 'Don't worry nana, I have to clean my van.'"
Less than eight hours later he was shot dead in the back of the van after the attempted carjacking.
Mr Naitoko worked for his mother's Kiwi Express courier business. He was delivering his last two packages of the day when he got caught up in the police pursuit.
"He was working yesterday for me," says Ms Fuimaono. "I was supposed to go with him, but then he said stay home because he could do it by himself...because I'm due to have a baby on Monday, so he said, 'Stay home and put your feet up.'"
Mr Naitoko had a two-year-old daughter and was expecting twins. He also played league for Mangere East.
His mother says he was always cheerful and willing to help.
"I think that's what we are going to miss the most," she says.
The family has found it difficult to comprehend how a young man who had happily left for work became the victim in a shootout.
"The family have been saying they saw on the media the van, and of course you know your work van, and then to see parts of your son or grandson or brother or cousin, it's shocking," says family friend Peter Sykes.
Police Minister Judith Collins was also there to offer support.
For the family, as they continue to congregate in black at the Fuimaono residence, their priorities lie not with investigations, but rather with getting the body of their young man home.
3 News