‘Very safe city’: Police, mayor urge calm after shootings
Several crimes, many involving firearms, have rocked Palmerston North recently, but the city’s leaders are advising residents not to worry.
Since the start of the month, there have been four shootings in Palmerston North.
Two happened within 24 hours of each other, and another involved police officers being shot at by someone fleeing in a vehicle.
Police are also still investigating the murder of 23-year-old Aaliyah Phillips Wilson, who was critically injured and later died at a Featherston St address on July 18.
The most recent incident happened on Tuesday night at about 11.30pm.
A man was shot in the head after being involved in a fight outside the Royal Hotel on Rangitīkei St.
He was taken to Palmerston North Hospital where he has remained in a stable condition, Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Thompson said on Wednesday.
The Manawatū Standard sat down with Inspector Ross Grantham, the Manawatū area commander, and asked whether he was concerned at the number of incidents involving firearms.
He said police were concerned at the behaviour of several groups of people who have been involved in the recent crimes.
In addition, officers were dedicated to seeing fewer instances of unauthorised possession of firearms on the streets.
“In the wrong hands, firearms have been – or have the potential to [be] – a significant risk to our community, to our own people, and this causes harm and concern within the community itself.”
Grantham said the recent events were not aimed at people in the community. Rather, they were between “specific groups of people”.
Tuesday night’s incident was not believed to be gang-related. He said the city had a small group of people who were involved in this type of behaviour, and for the most part Palmerston North was still a “very safe city”.
Mayor Grant Smith agreed. Instead of using their fists, people these days were bringing knives, machetes and guns to a fight, he said.
“Those that know the lie of the land and and have been here for a while know that Palmerston North is a very safe city. But from time to time, you do get instances, and it’s unfortunate that we’ve had a spate of isolated incidents.”
Smith said he was confident in the
work that local police were doing and pointed to all the work police had done to tackle retail theft and boy racers in the region.
He said Palmerston North was a friendly city and always had been, and the events occurring this month did not represent “normal activity”.
Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere said he understood people in the community would feel unsafe from time to time when incidents like this happened.
Whenever issues were raised to him about violence, gang-related incidents and unsavoury behaviour, he directed people to police, he said.
“It is the role of police to ensure we continue to be safe. In my interactions [with them], that’s their focus.”
Young people allegedly firing at police was not OK, but it needed to be left to police to work through, Utikere said.
Grantham said police would be pushing a message of “if you see something, report it”.
Knowing where incidents were occurring would help him to prioritise where to focus police efforts and where best to deploy officers. “We need to be able to take some action. If we don’t know about it, we can’t do anything.”
“It is the role of police to ensure we continue to be safe. In my interactions [with them], that’s their focus.”
Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere