"Police investigate death of man following arrest"

Please attribute to Superintendent Karyn Malthus, Auckland City District Commander.

Police are investigating the death of a man following his arrest on Sunday.

Police received multiple reports on Sunday 1 July, 2018 of a male violently assaulting an elderly person outside a residential address in Beresford Street, Freemans Bay.

The male offender had smashed a car window of a nearby parked car and was observed kicking the victim in the head several times as he lay unconscious.

The police Eagle helicopter had observations of the incident and two police officers arrived at the scene. The officers were unable to reach the unconscious victim as the offender was blocking them from attending to him.

The officers instructed the offender to move out of the way which he refused to do and moved aggressively towards them.

Their repeated commands were ignored and the offender lunged towards them before he was tasered multiple times. During the arrest process the offender violently struggled which required two more back-up officers to assist to apply necessary restraints and a spit hood.

Once the offender was restrained, police staff attended to the elderly victim until paramedics arrived and he was taken to hospital where remains in a serious condition but is recovering from the violent assault.

The offender was transported to the Auckland Police Custody Unit in an agitated state and continued resisting police efforts to remove restraints. The offender’s condition began to deteriorate while in custody and police were required to perform CPR until an ambulance arrived. He was taken to hospital where he passed away this morning.

Based on the information we have at this time, we do not believe the elderly victim and alleged offender were known to each other.

Police are engaged with the deceased’s family and are supporting them as we work to establish the circumstances surrounding what happened that day.

Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the assault and the death in custody. The matter has been referred to the Coroner, Worksafe New Zealand and the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

ENDS

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