Suicide by cop

The HoS report:

Police fatally shot burglar Adam Morehu in the back, before hitting him over the head with a torch, his family says.

Details on the two bullet wounds have emerged after the Taranaki man’s body was returned to his family for burial, along with a preliminary pathologist’s report.

“I don’t know that I would grieve any less if he was shot in the front, but being shot in the back – that’s just wrong,” said Diane Richardson, the mother of his partner Kaly.

Even if the family are correct, surely the key issue is why were the Police shooting Morehu?

Police say Adam Te Rata Charles Morehu, 33, was first Tasered, then shot twice in the torso with a police-issue Glock handgun after he acted aggressively towards the officers, twice threatening to kill them and firing a shot from a rifle.

He not only threatened to kill the Police, but he fired his rifle. At that point he was doing suicide by cop. He refused to surrender to armed police, he threatened to kill them, and he fired his rifle.

But they have refused to confirm to the Herald on Sunday that he was shot in the back, saying only that the officer believed he heard Morehu reloading his rifle in the darkness.

I don’t care what the angle is. This is not some Western duel or gunfight. He fired his gun, and refused to surrender. You don’t give him a sporting chance to kill you. You fire.

Kaly had been angry at Morehu for going on the alleged burglary, Richardson said, but more angry still to discover that he need not have died.

Indeed. All he had to do was drop his gun and surrender. Her anger should all by at Morehu, and not at the poor cops who had to risk their lives being shot by him.