5 July 2008
MEDIA RELEASE: Immediate use
Investigation Into The Shooting Of Steven Wallace

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has confirmed it is continuing its investigation into the shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara on 30 April 2000.

Authority Chair Justice Lowell Goddard said the Authority resumed its investigation after the conclusion of the Coroner’s inquest into Steven’s death in August 2007, and had found some matters that needed further independent investigation.

Authority investigators have interviewed several current and former police officers, and have also interviewed witnesses to the shooting and members of Steven Wallace’s family.

Justice Goddard expressed regret that the Authority’s investigation was still to be completed several years after Steven Wallace’s death. She said that the Authority’s practice in the past had been to wait until police investigations, court hearings and coroner’s hearings had been completed before conducting its own inquiries. The Authority has now changed that practice.

She also noted that, at the time of Steven Wallace’s shooting, the Authority had not been resourced to carry out its own investigations. That had also changed and the current investigation was fully independent.

ends

© Scoop Media