Gunman pointed rifle and then 'panic set in'

Sergeant Don Wilkinson was shot dead. Photo / Richard Robinson

A senior policeman was so shocked by having a gun pointed at him during a covert operation that he didn't think to warn his colleagues, who were then shot as they tried to escape.

The officer, who has name suppression and can be referred to only as Officer W, was with Sergeant Don Wilkinson and another officer, known as Officer M, when they attempted to place a tracking device on a vehicle outside a house in Hain Ave, Mangere East, on September 11, 2008.

Mr Wilkinson, 46, was killed and Officer M seriously injured in the attack that followed.

Iain Lindsay Clegg, 33, and John Ward Skinner, 37, are charged with murder and attempted murder. Skinner is also charged with assault with a firearm.

Officer W saw movement at the front door of the house and told his team to leave quickly. They fled down the street as he emerged from his hiding place and pretended to be "an old bloke out for a midnight walk".

An occupant of the house then challenged Officer W, who turned around to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun.

"By that stage I was realising it was a rifle of some nature being pointed at me and the panic started setting in," he said.

He felt his only hope of survival was to bluff his way out of it and didn't reveal he was a police officer because he didn't know what impact that would have on the armed man.

The gunman then spoke to someone in a car, apologised to Officer W, got into the vehicle and left with the engine roaring and tyres screeching.

Asked by Crown Solicitor Simon Moore, SC, why he didn't tell the others he had been threatened with a gun, he said: "I can only put it down to being in shock that I hadn't thought to do that."

Shortly after, he heard words from the others, over the police radio, that they were being assaulted. He went around the corner and stopped right by where the dying Mr Wilkinson and injured Officer M lay in the darkness.

He thought he could hear his name being called faintly over the radio but went straight past them.

Officer W told the High Court at Auckland he expected his colleagues to be at the safe point nearby.

Earlier, he told the court Mr Wilkinson had not been wearing stab-resistant body armour on the night of the covert operation. Officer M had been wearing a vest.

"I find these pieces of equipment virtually impossible to use in the environment we work in."

He said there were different sizes but they didn't have an option of different types of body armour to wear.

"There is obviously far better options than this. It's very hot, it's very bulky and if you're trying to do covert duties it's very detectable.

He said it was an "issue for the police department" and "it's a shame to bring it out in this arena" but needed to be addressed.

In cross-examination, Officer W was asked why he hadn't warned his colleagues about the gun. He said he "wished" that he had, but didn't think it would have made any difference.

Officer W said he attached little importance to the rendezvous point because over many years of covert work one hadn't been needed to be used.