A mother speaks of her grief and pain after her 501 son was killed in an ‘unjustified’ police shooting

Tangaru Turia, 34, was six months old when he left New Zealand, living in Australia until he was deported in 2017. Turia was shot dead by police while "brandishing" a shotgun. Photo / Supplied

The mother of the “501″ deportee killed by a police officer in an “unjustified” shooting wants to see him face charges in court and let the justice system decide whether he is guilty.

Moana Taverio said the Independent Police Conduct Authority report released today showed her son Tanguru Noere Turia need not have died in February 2021 as he wrestled with mental health issues in a community where struggled to find a place.

Turia was deported from Australia in 2017 at the age of 30 after living in the country since he was six months old. He left behind three children.

Four years later police were called after he fired a shotgun at his Papatoetoe neighbour’s living room window. Turia, who was facing firearms and burglary charges at the time - and hearing voices in his head, was shot and later died in hospital.

The IPCA inquiry called the shooting unjustified after finding there were just two seconds between the officer’s warning to surrender and the shooting at a time when Turia presented low or minimal harm.

A review of CCTV and other footage by the IPCA found Noere-Turia was walking slowly out of the house with the shotgun on his shoulder, pointing up, at the time he was shot.

The IPCA report said police did not charge the officer over a shooting it found to be “unjustified” because a defence of self-defence meant a conviction was not likely.

Taverio said: “Now that it’s out in the clear with the independent report, I think charges should have been laid on the police officer.

“It would have been different if it was one of them taken. I think it’s wrong - there should have been charges.”

Moana Taverio, whose son Tangaru Turia was deported as a '501' and died after being shot by police. Photo / Supplied

Taverio said she understood it was a difficult encounter and had hoped police would have sought support from mental health staff. “No one is happy to go into a situation like that. You are scared.”

Taverio said she was struck by Officer A’s statement to the IPCA that he would have shot Turia in the bedroom if he could get a clear shot “even though all he could see was the barrel of the shotgun”. It was at a time when specialist firearms officers could see Turia and could have responded if he became threatening.

It was an admission that the IPCA said showed Officer A “had formed a fixed view that he would use his firearm to neutralise the threat as soon as he had the opportunity”. The IPCA found: “Officer A had already decided to shoot Mr Turia if he emerged armed.”

Taverio said: “There’s a lot of assumptions from him - his mindframe is to put him down knowing the person they were dealing with had mental health problems.”

Taverio said the death of her son was a tragedy that began in 2017 when Noere-Turia was deported under the controversial “501″ law championed by Peter Dutton, currently Australia’s Opposition leader but then Minister for Border Protection.

“He (Dutton) was the one,” said Taverio. She said she believed that if her son, who she said was last convicted in Australia for domestic violence-related offending, had not been deported then he would still be alive.

Taverio flew to New Zealand on the day of her son’s deportation and attended mental health appointments to try and establish a pattern of care. He was linked with family in Auckland but it was too much to ask they cope with a grown man they didn’t know who had clear mental health issues.

Police said Tangaru Turia was holding a gun as he left a property on Avis Ave in Papatoetoe before he was shot dead. Photo / NZME

“[My son] wouldn’t have gone through the trauma he had been put through. He didn’t even know the community.”

The 501 law allows the government in Australia to deport those convicted of crimes to their home countries. In the case of New Zealand, it has produced perverse outcomes in which people - such as Noere-Turia - were sent back to a place to which their only connection is birth.

She said she did not believe her son to be someone who would have used the shotgun in a violent way - but also could not understand why he had the firearm.

Taverio said she had been briefed on the IPCA report the day before its release and family were gathering this weekend for a second online briefing.

Assistant Commissioner Sam Hoyle said there was insufficient evidence to lay a charge against the officer and that an employment investigation would be unlikely to reach a different outcome.

He said the report showed the need for greater clarity in policy and training about thresholds for use of lethal force.

“Our staff respond to a wide range of fast-changing incidents in any given day. Many of these involve a very real risk to the public and can require split-second decision making.”

Hoyle said there would be a review of training and policy relating to the use of lethal force. He said there was a risk officers could feel unable to act if they thought their actions would be “too finely judged”.