KEY POINTS:
A police blunder may be the reason that officers took too long to reach slain liquor store owner Navtej Singh - news his family say comes as "just another blow".
Mr Singh, 30, died in June after being shot in the chest while working in his Manurewa liquor store.
Police came under fire after the shooting for waiting too long at a police cordon and for preventing ambulance officers access to Mr Singh.
It is believed police took between 26 and 45 minutes to reach Mr Singh.
At the time, police said the delay was procedural - they had to be sure the robbers had left the scene.
But Sunday News reported yesterday that an internal inquiry has revealed that police with access to the weapons required to secure the scene took the wrong set of keys and were forced to wait for an officer to get the correct keys from the police station.
The inquiry also found that another officer, who was attending an aggravated robbery at the time, had to take a colleague and an offender to a police station before attending the fatal shooting, the newspaper said.
Police, through spokeswoman Debbie Corney, yesterday declined to comment on the findings, saying the matter of Mr Singh's death was before the courts.
"In addition, the Independent Police Conduct Authority is investigating a complaint relating to this matter and out of courtesy we would not wish to release an internal debrief document ahead of the authority's deliberations."
A spokesman for Mr Singh's family, New Zealand Sikh Society spokesman and interpreter Manpreet Singh, yesterday expressed shock and anger over news that police "mishandling" the case could be to blame.
Mr Singh said police had let the family down when they waited at the cordon for 45 minutes, for not letting ambulance officers enter the scene, and for not letting Navtej Singh's family to take him to hospital while they were desperately waiting for help.
News that police might have taken the wrong keys was "just another blow" to the family, who formally complained to the conduct authority.
