A man is set to appear in Waitākere District Court today charged with murder after the deaths of two people in West Auckland on Friday.
Police cordons at Barrys Road in Glendene after yesterday’s fatal shootings in the West Auckland suburb. Photo: Nick Truebridge
The 27-year-old West Auckland man is facing two charges of murder in relation to the deaths in the Auckland suburb of Glendene yesterday afternoon.
In a statement, Detective Inspector John Sutton said they were not seeking anyone else in relation to the deaths and they believed those involved were known to each other.
Police inquiries were continuing and those in the area would see an increased police presence until tomorrow, he said.
Police have now yet named the victims and say post mortems will be carried out in the coming days.
A man has been taken into custody following a firearms incident in West Auckland that left two people dead this afternoon.
Police cordons off both sides of Barrys Rd in Glendene after the fatal shooting of two people in the West Auckland suburb. Photo: Nick Truebridge
Police said officers approached a Te Atatū Peninsula address and took a man into custody, following a manhunt after the deadly incident in the suburb of Glendene at about 3pm.
A homicide investigation has now underway.
Emergency services were called to the scene this afternoon, with residents reporting the sound of gunfire and screaming.
Cordons were in place on Barrys Rd, and locals had been asked to avoid the area. Police say the cordons will remain in place and there would be a heightened police presence in the area.
Auckland Transport said bus route 162 is being detoured due to the police event and told commuters to expect delays.
“Police understand this was an alarming incident for local residents and we would like to reassure the community that at this stage, we are not seeking anyone else,” a police statement said this afternoon.
“The investigation is in its very early stages and we are still asking any witnesses to contact Police on 105.”
In the wake of the incident a local board member in west Auckland has called for stricter firearms control.
Henderson-Massey Local Board member Peter Chan said he was shocked to hear of the shooting.
Chan said New Zealand needed stricter legislation to control access to firearms and ammunition.
He said the recent spate of shooting cases had been disheartening, and the government needed to take urgent action.
A Tongan man who works in Australia under the Seasonal Worker Programme clung on for 30 hours before finally being rescued.
The 36-year-old worker at a banana farm was one of four men from the farm who went off the coast of Far North Queensland after their boat sank on the way back from a fishing trip to the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday.
The Tongan national was identified by various Tongan sources as Manatu-He-Lotu ‘Asi.
Reports by Australian media said a group of four men set off from Clump Point near Mission Beach on Friday night in a 5.2-metre fibreglass fishing boat.
“Acting Inspector Brett Jenkins said the group consisted of a 24-year-old Mission Beach man who owned the boat, two Vanuatu nationals aged 26 and 31, and a 36-year-old Tongan national”, reported ABC radio.
“About 11:00am on Saturday we believe that the vessel started to take on water and quickly sank somewhere in the vicinity of the Bernard Islands,” Jenkins was reported by the radio as saying.
“Unfortunately they weren’t able to activate the EPIRB on the vessel or don any of the life jackets.”
‘Asi reportedly spent 30 hours in the ocean before he was rescued, reported the Australian 9News Channel.
Authorities described ‘Asi’s finding as ‘finding a needle in a haystack’.
He was taken to a hospital and treated for hyperthermia and exposure.
“He was okay he was very lucky”, a member of the rescue team told the Channel.
Dr Tēvita Ka’ili, Professor of Anthropology & Cultural Sustainability Brigham Young University Hawaiʻi
The app is a digital version of the Tongan Dictionary written by the late Dr Maxwell Churchward, which was copyrighted by the Tonga Government in 1959.
As Kaniva Tonga News reported in 2013, new copyright protection was enacted in the kingdom in 2008. This replaced the 1961 copyright regulations, which were based on earlier British laws.
The app was created by developer Jordan Gardner and is being sold for $4.99 in the Google Play. The Google Play webpage showed the app had been downloaded more than 100 times.
The Google Store did not provide any detail information about Mr. Gardner.
Dr Tēvita Ka’ili, a Tongan Professor of Anthropology & Cultural Sustainability at Brigham Young University, Hawai’i, said he sent Mr Gardner his feedback about the number of spelling mistakes in the app.
He said Gardner was expected to release an updated version of the app.
Dr Ka’ili said he and some colleagues had also written to Dr Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa, the former Prime Minister of Tonga last year and asked him about the legal status of the app. They also asked Hon Tu’i’onetoa whether Mr Gardner had approached the Tongan Government for a permit to digitise and sell the dictionary.
“I believe the people of Tonga should benefit from any revenues collected from the app because the dictionary was owned by the Government of Tonga”, Dr Ka’ili told Kaniva News.
The academics believed the app should have been created by the Tonga government so that it could generate some revenue for the country.
Kaniva News contacted Tonga’s Attorney General Linda Folaumoetu’i.
We asked Folaumoetu’i whether the Government was aware of the app and the monetising of the Tongan language.
OAKLAND, Calif. – A young couple hospitalized after two Oakland police officers chased a 19-year-old driver, which ended in a crash that killed their 28-year-old cousin has at least two other major problems.
Ina Lavalu and her husband Daniel Fifita
Ina Lavalu, 24, and her husband, Daniel Fifita, 25, each suffered injuries so significant that they can’t immediately return to work.
And they also can’t afford to retrieve their 2018 Volkswagen Atlas from Auto Plus Towing, where their SUV was taken on June 26 at the direction of the Oakland Police Department.
At the end of last week, the cost to get their VW back was $1,200. And the bill is still climbing.
“Auto Plus told them that not only can they not get their stuff, but that they’re going to sell it,” said civil rights attorney Adante Pointer, who has been retained to represent them. “They also won’t give them an itemized bill until the couple pays for the cleanup of the car.”
On top of that, Lavalu and Fifita lost their cousin Lolomanaia “Lolo” Soakai, who was killed during the chase and crash. And they are also caring for seven children – four of whom belong to a relative who recently died.
Without their car, their lives have become even more unbearable. It’s possible that their insurance might cover it, but they haven’t been able to cut through the red tape. Plus, there is a deductible.
“This is a nightmare that continues to get worse,” Pointer said. “They continue to be victimized.”
Auto Plus did not return an email on Thursday seeking comment. Late in the day, Oakland police said in a statement that the couple never reached out for the proper vehicle release form and their Volkswagen was towed as it was a traffic hazard.
However, four hours after KTVU published this story about the couple’s plight, someone at OPD called Pointer to say that Lavalu and her husband could use victim’s assistance money to get their car back. The details weren’t immediately spelled out, but the officer told Pointer that they would “get it done.”
On the night their cousin was killed, Lavalu and Fifita were eating at a taco truck on International Boulevard about 2 a.m. when unbeknownst to them, Oakland police had started chasing 19-year-old Arnold Linaldi in his Nissan 350Z down International Boulevard.
Police have said that Linaldi was involved in an illegal sideshow, but they have not provided details. Linaldi was speeding at 100 mph and his Facebook page shows him in the past driving fast in friends with cars.
The chase ended with Linaldi crashing his car in the middle of International Bouelvard and 54th Avenue, striking parked cars and motorcycles along the way.
One of the parked cars was Lavalu’s Volkswagen.
And one of the motorcycles landed on Soakai, killing him.
Soakai’s mother, who was next to her son, broke her back and had to lay next to her son’s body in the street for a time, without realizing that he was dead, Pointer said.
The two officers did not have authorization to pursue Linaldi’s Nissan 350Z and when the police realized a crash had occurred, they fled the scene without rendering medical aid, two sources told KTVU last week.
Linaldi did not appear to be injured after the crash. While he was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter, the DA has not charged him with any crime. He is out of custody.
Meanwhile, Lavalu and Fifita were taken to Highland Hospital.
The couple left their Volkswagen behind because they were taken away by ambulance.
Their car was left at the scene and eventually towed.
According to the couple, Lavalu’s father went to the scene to get his daughter’s Volkswagen back, but an Oakland police officer refused his request.
Police had let another relative retrieve Soakai’s car from the scene, and police said the family couldn’t take both cars home since the tow truck company had already been called.
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED: An aunt started a GoFundMe page to help with expenses.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated after Oakland police said the couple could use victim’s assistance money to get their Volkswagen back.
Residents of Tonga take to social media to welcome a plan by the US to open a new embassy in Nuku’alofa.
US vice-president Kamala Harris Photo: AFP
The United States said Tuesday it would expand its diplomatic presence in the Pacific, as it seeks to counter the growing influence of China in a region of intensifying great-power rivalry.
The US Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to officially confirmed the plan “during a virtual address to leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Fiji” this week on Wednesday.
“The diplomatic push comes amid concerns that China has supplanted the United States as the friend of choice for some Pacific island nations. China struck a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in April despite American objections. And the Chinese foreign minister recently signed several other bilateral agreements during an eight-country tour of the region”, a report by The Washington Post says.
The new diplomatic initiatives come as the United States tries to restore some of its influence in the region, it said.
The commitments included the establishment of another embassy in Kiribati.
“We are significantly stepping up our game in the Pacific islands,” said a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity ahead of the vice president’s PIF appearance. The official said the United States is not asking Pacific island nations to choose between it and China.
“We are focusing on our own engagement and our own interests and our own support,” the official said. “Of course contrasts [with China] will be made, and we would like to think that contrast looks favourably on us, where we’ve been a responsible security actor in the region, in fact, in the entire Indo-Pacific, for many decades and have helped to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The news has been applauded by the Tonga online community with many saying the move could help resolve long standing issues faced by many who wanted to travel to the US.
These people had to travel to Fiji first at a significant costs to apply at the US Embassy there for their visas but not all applicants were successful.
President of the Tonga Body Building Association, Masanao Onedera, has demanded that the president of the Tonga Body Building Federation, Talaiasi Nau, pay $15,400 to settle a long running legal dispute.
Masanao Ondera (L), Talaiasi Nau (R)
Onedera’s lawyers said the Supreme Court had ordered an audit of the Omega Gym, which had been a business venture, jointly owned by Onedera and Nau.
“The said audit found that the Tonga Body Building Federation owed $15,400.64 that was payable to Mr. Onedera for gym equipment bought by him and freight related expenses to ship the gym equipment to Tonga,” Onedera’s lawyers said.
They also demanded that President of Tonga Body Building Federation Talaiasi Nau repay $1590 he took out of the Omega Gym account.
The dispute centres on the ownership of body building equipment after the collapse of Onedera and Nau’s business partnership.
As Kaniva News reported at the time, Nau told a hearing before the Supreme Court that he and Onodera had a 50/50 partnership in the Omega Gym, which was located in Queen Salote Memorial Hall at Nuku’alofa.
Nau said Onodera had terminated the partnership by taking over the management of the gym.
The Tonga Bodybuilding Federation claimed it owned the equipment used in the gym and wanted it to be returned to its possession and control.
Onodera disputed both claims, saying the equipment was his own property and that the partnership with Nau was on an 80/20 basis, with himself having the majority share.
He told the court the partnership was terminated by consent and that the gym was solely his own business.
In August 2016, Nau and a team from TBBF competed in the South Pacific Natural Physique and Fitness Championship in Auckland.
Onodera advised Nau to ask the vice-president of the South Pacific and Oceania for the International Federation of Body Building, Paul Graham, to donate specialised body building equipment to the TBBF.
Graham agreed to donate the equipment to the TBBF, which was made as an affiliate of the IFBB.
Onodera paid for the cost of having the equipment shipped to Tonga from Sydney. He said that because of his investment Grahams and his wife agreed that the equipment would be in his name.
Graham sent a letter saying the equipment was being consigned to the TBBF instead of himself, as was shown on the shipping documents .
He told the court this was done on the advice of Nau who told him it would save custom charges.
“Now I realise it was all to create a way to claim the equipment was owned by TBBF without having spent a penny on getting it to Tonga,” he told the Supreme Court.
However, Nau said: “[Onodera] signed the letter confirming that the equipment belonged to TBBF freely and willingly in order for duty exemption to be obtained and for the equipment to be released to TBBF,.”
Judge Niu, who presided over the case, said he accepted Nau’s evidence. He said the equipment that Onodera sent from Sydney became vested in TBBF by way of gift from Mr. and Mrs. Graham to TBBF, because Onodera was at that moment the agent of TBBF.
A similar set of claims was made about a second set of equipment which Onodera claimed was his, even though it had also been passed through customs as the property of the TBBF. This claim was also rejected by the judge.
However, the judge said he believed Onodera’s claim that the business was divided 80/20 rather than 50/50.
Judge Niu ruled that all the equipment shipped to Tonga was the property of the Tonga Body Building Federation and should be returned to it.
Nau and Onedera agreed to having an accountant look into the business.
In 2020 an account was prepared. The accountants said Nau and Onedera did not agree on the position of the accounts. A face to face meeting was suggested in order to resolve the dispute, but this did not happen.
Onedera’s lawyers have demanded that Nau pay the money they say is owed by July 13. Onedera told Kaniva News he would continue pursuing legal action against Nau.
For more information
Supreme Court rules equipment belongs to Bodybuilding Federation; orders its return
New Zealand High Commissioner, HE Matthew Howell, visits the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) Warehouse at Matatoa to handover a Grant Contribution Letter confirming funding of TOP$1.3 million from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
The funding support from MFAT is for the construction of a new NEMO distribution warehouse in Ha’apai as part of Tonga’s recovery phase to the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai eruption and tsunami event in January. The visit to Matatoa on Friday 8 July 2022, was also an opportunity to view prepositioning supplies funded by MFAT for future events.
His Excellency and High Commission Staff, were joined by the CEO of MEIDECC, Paula Ma’u, NEMO’s Director Mafua Vai’utukakau and staff from NEMO.
The new warehouse in Ha’apai will provide a central location for receiving and distributing relief supplies across Ha’apai (population 5,419), to its many small and remote islands. The warehouse will also include a multipurpose room that will be used for various NEMO training and workshop activities. In addition, an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) communications room will be furnished with communication equipment enabling the EOC to be fully functional in Ha’apai.
Police are still searching for a person of interest over an incident on Wednesday which saw five schools go into lockdown.
Photo: RNZ / Nick Truebridge
Armed police swarmed an area in Belmont on the North Shore following reports of a man with a gun and spent several hours surrounding a house on Bardia Street.
The house was empty when police entered and commissioner Andrew Coster said no arrests had yet been made.
“We don’t consider that there is any immediate danger to the public but we are pursuing avenues of enquiry and when we can update further on that we will.”
The commissioner believed there was adequate communication between police and the community during yesterday’s incident which saw five schools locked down.
Speculation was rife with students posting to social media and messaging parents varying reports.
“I think the staff dealt appropriately based on the information they had at the time, the schools were happy with the way we communicated with them and indeed their responses were spot on.”
The lockdown saw students as young as five hiding under desks for over half an hour and police have commended schools for their swift response.
Marianne Coldham of Bayswater School said students were not given details on the incident unfolding on Barida St.
The school have consultants on how to deal with shooter situations, she said.
“We do try to keep things relatively calm, keep the kids happy and anxiety low.”
Head of the Auckland Secondary School Principals Association Greg Pierce said the natural instinct for students was to send a message home or to post online.
However, he said the recommendations are that during lockdowns phones stay off and there was no noise or movement.
He said consistency and clear communication with parents was crucial when responding to a potential threat.
“Parents want to go to the school to ensure their kids are safe which is understandable but that doesn’t help the situation.”
He understood the natural instinct for students was to send a message home or to post on social media but this can often lead to false information being circulated.
BNZ has been put on notice for failing to comply with anti-money laundering rules.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The Reserve Bank handed BNZ a formal warning after it did not report the correct location for 50,000 local cash transactions to police between November 2018 and April 2020.
Anti-money laundering and countering of financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) law requires financial service providers to report all domestic transactions worth more than $10,000 to the police and the Reserve Bank.
BNZ discovered a technical coding error in its systems in August 2020, which meant that inaccurate location data was sent to the police.
BNZ self-reported the issue to the RBNZ.
“We can appreciate that design errors can occur,” RBNZ deputy governor Christian Hawkesby said. “This reiterates the importance of reporting entities regularly testing and validating the coding for AML/CFT systems to ensure they are correctly designed.”
There was no suggestion that BNZ was engaged in money laundering activity.
He said a warning was an appropriate penalty.
“The prescribed transaction reporting regime is important for building an intelligence picture across New Zealand’s financial system.
“Unfortunately, these coding errors compromised the quality of the information held by the police.
“We note that BNZ self-reported this issue to us and has worked hard to remediate the issue and provide the FIU with the corrected information.”
A spokesperson for BNZ said it respected the Reserve Bank’s findings and took its AML/CFT compliance very seriously.
“We are continuously reviewing our processes and procedures, working with regulators and other authorities, and investing heavily in this area to build our capability and make ongoing performance improvements.”
