A 77-year-old man has been charged with murder and attempted murder, following an incident in Waiau, Thames yesterday. Kiwibank predicts growth in 2025, as record migrants flee NZ.
Diane Hunt has complained to the police watchdog following her son Matthew’s murder.
Matthew Hunt was killed by Eli Epiha during a traffic stop in West Auckland on June 19, 2020.
Diane criticises the lack of proper equipment and training, despite police implementing safety recommendations after the incident.
The mother of slain cop Matthew Hunt has complained to the police watchdog over his murder, saying the force “sent him to his death” without adequate training or equipment to protect him from the rising threat of armed criminals.
Police officer Matthew Hunt was fatally shot during a routine traffic stop in West Auckland in June 2020.
Diane Hunt is angry her son had to lay down hislife before NZ Police improved training and procedures to keep other officers safe.
She says police documents obtained under the Official Information Act suggest dozens of officers had been shot at in the months before the tragedy. She has now asked the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) to investigate Hunt’s death.
She has also hit back at the findings of an internal police health and safety report – obtained by the Herald.
Diane Hunt mother of slain police officer Matthew Hunt is lodging IPCA complaint about her son's death. Photo / Dean Purcell
It suggests the rookie constable should have used his patrol car as a weapon against an assailant who opened fire suddenly with a semi-automatic assault rifle or left his badly injured partner behind to retreat and “arm up”.
While police implemented a raft of safety recommendations after the incident, Diane says it is hollow comfort that it took Hunt’s murder to spark changes that should have protected her son.
“He is everything to me. He was my first-born and I am so proud of him. And he was only 28.
“He had so much potential and so much to offer. He was just becoming a man.”
Funeral for Constable Matthew Hunt at Eden Park in July 2020. Photo / supplied
Diane is preparing for her fifth Christmas without her beloved boy, who held a criminology degree and planned to become a detective.
Hunt was gunned down during a routine traffic stop in West Auckland on June 19, 2020 after Eli Epiha fled police, crashed, and then began firing at Hunt and fellow Constable Dave Goldfinch using a high-powered Norinco assault rifle.
Hunt, who was unarmed, radioed for help from inside the patrol car. He was then shot after he left the vehicle on foot before radioing police comms again “as he lay dying on the road”.
“All he had was a radio so he used it and he tried,” Diane told the Herald. “Because he didn’t have a gun, he didn’t have a sword. He had a radio.”
Hunt was this month posthumously awarded the New Zealand Bravery Decoration for “exceptional behaviour in the worst of all circumstances”.
Diane says her son was a proud police officer who had only transferred to the Harbour Bridge traffic policing unit 10 days before he died.
"He was my first-born and I am so proud of him. And he was only 28" said Diane Hunt, mother of slain police officer Matthew Hunt. Photo / Dean Purcell
She believes he was sent out that day ill-prepared for the risks he faced serving in a community awash with guns and offenders readily prepared to “pull the trigger”.
The Warkworth-based single parent has been fighting for answers since her son’s death and accountability for what happened, amassing thousands of pages of documents from government departments.
One of those documents contains a disturbing hand-scribbled note from a senior police staffer. It reads: “34 firearms discharged since last March @ staff”.
Despite the risk of gun violence faced by frontline cops, Hunt’s patrol car that day did not have the requisite two Glock pistols and two Bushmaster rifles required under police policy. Just one Glock was available inside a locked box, which neither officer had time to access.
A rifle that would usually have been in the car was faulty and under repair.
A coroner last year declined to hold an inquest, saying she was satisfied with the investigations carried out by police and steps subsequently taken to improve safety across the force.
However Diane says new training and risk assessment procedures implemented since the killing are hard to stomach.
She is angry her son had to make the ultimate sacrifice so the next lot of police recruits could be safe.
“Why not my son? It’s like a slap in the face to think that my son had to die so that others can have the training he didn’t get.”
Constable Matthew Hunt was killed by Eli Epiha during a traffic stop in West Auckland on June 19, 2020. Photo / Supplied
‘He wasn’t Rambo’
Diane is also angry that WorkSafe – the body charged with enforcing the Health & Safety at Work Act – chose not to investigate Hunt’s death or visit the scene of his shooting.
It instead relied on an internal police health and safety investigation, which she says is akin to “police investigating police”.
The internal TapRoot report makes a series of findings that Diane is highly critical of.
Because Epiha posed an immediate threat of death or grievous bodily harm, “the officers could have used any force necessary to overcome it”, the report says.
It suggests Hunt “could/should” have used the police vehicle as a “weapon of opportunity” after coming under fire.
But the report also notes such action is “highly unlikely to be considered a common tactical option” in life and death situations, and that training should be considered for “such a possibility”.
Eli Bob Epiha appears at Auckland High Court for sentencing for the fatal shooting of Police Constable Matthew Hunt. Photo / Michael Craig
Diane dismissed this suggestion as implausible.
“They’re saying he should do things he was never trained for.
“He wasn’t Rambo. He wasn’t that sort of person. He wasn’t a big gorilla that was going to jump out of the car and gouge the guy to death. He wasn’t like that.”
The report also suggests Hunt could have retrieved the Glock from the locked box or driven off and “armed up” after coming under fire.
But Diane says there was no time for her son to retrieve the Glock from the front passenger footwell, and he would never have left his wounded partner behind.
And given the lack of firearms in the patrol car, she questions what he could have “armed up” with.
What good was a Glock against a semi-automatic?
Diane Hunt, mother of murdered Constable Matthew Hunt, spoke outside Auckland High Court after killer Eli Epiha was jailed in 2021. Photo / Michael Craig
The report highlights the lack of available firearms in the police vehicle but says it had no “effect on the outcome” because of the speed events unfolded.
It also contains a raft of recommendations for training, equipment and safety.
One was to review whether the routine arming of frontline staff was justified considering police tactical capabilities and the current “risk environment”.
Another references the growing risk faced by officers, who were “encountering more firearms and motivated offenders willing to fire at police”.
‘My expectation was never that he would die’
Diane says a police memo sent after the killing said “Matthew would still be dead” even if the four requisite guns had been in the car.
However, she believes this offers a “false sense of security” given he didn’t have the tools to keep himself safe.
“Senior staff must have known the dangers frontline staff faced yet they still sent them out without the required equipment.”
Frustrated by a lack of information and unable to ask questions of police and WorkSafe at an inquest, Diane lodged an IPCA complaint in April.
She says she has no concerns about the criminal investigation or prosecution of Epiha, who was jailed for at least 27 years. She is focused solely on events prior to the shooting.
“The document said 34 police officers in three months had guns pointed at them and the trigger pulled. This, to me, says that Matthew was the 35th police officer to be put in this position.”
The watchdog is now investigating her complaint and due to release its findings early next year.
As part of the coronial process, Diane met for mediation with senior police staff.
She claimed an inspector asked: “Is this about arming police?” while another high-ranking officer said, “policing is dangerous”, which she found highly offensive.
“It was like an expectation of Matthew wearing that uniform that he would die. It was kind of like, ‘What did you expect?’
“My expectation was never that he would die. I certainly didn’t expect this.
“I accept that policing is dangerous but believed that there would be training and safety equipment available to my son in line with the seriousness of the situations he would face.
“I had faith in the NZ Police to provide Matthew with the necessary tools to perform his job.”
Diane said Hunt loved being a cop and it was difficult for her now to “go against police”, who had been supportive since the tragedy.
But she wanted the dangers faced by frontline officers exposed. She now believes police should be routinely armed for their own protection.
“They knew all this stuff before June 19 and sent my son out regardless.
“He was a proud NZ Police officer who deserved better.
“As time passes you realise the enormity of losing your loved one and that it is forever. My daughter and I now have to live the rest of our lives without Matthew and that really hurts.”
Constable Matthew Hunt was killed while on active duty on June 19, 2020.
‘Looking down the wrong end of a firearm’
Among the documents released to Diane are emails from two unnamed police officers who contacted WorkSafe in the days after Hunt’s death.
One email raises concerns about the rollout of body armour, saying current safety equipment “is not fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with offenders with firearms”.
“Incidents are dynamic and fast-moving. One minute you could be speaking with a completely reasonable person and the next you’re looking down the wrong end of a firearm ... Or worse having shots fired at you.”
The second email says the danger of being shot is “unknown and happens in a split second”.
While other officers had come under fire, they had survived because of “good luck more than good safety equipment”.
“The possibility of being attacked and shot is a real workplace hazard for police every day at almost every incident.
“Having protective gear on hand is not sufficient when it comes to firearms – it is unsafe and risks the lives of the police employees.”
Police Association president Chris Cahill said better training since Hunt’s death had given officers more confidence to make the right decisions to increase safety.
“But unfortunately with policing and the number of firearms out there, there’s always going to be that risk.
“For myself and most senior officers, it’s something we worry about most days – that’s what the next phone call’s going to be.”
Former officer Allister Rose is the founder of Hatikvah: Blue Hope Foundation, a charity advocating for police wellbeing.
He wrote to the IPCA this month after former Ports of Auckland chief Tony Gibson was found guilty in a landmark health and safety prosecution over a stevedoring death.
Rose said that case had relevance for high-risk environments like policing.
He criticised tactical response changes introduced after Hunt’s death, which relied on policies and training “rather than the hard controls necessary to effectively mitigate critical risks such as officers facing armed offenders.
“On the day of Constable Hunt’s death, sufficient firearms were not available in the patrol car – an absence of critical hard controls that might have influenced the outcome.”
“Addressing these elements comprehensively is not only essential to honour Constable Hunt’s memory but also to ensure the safety of police officers in the future.”
‘Horrific loss’
Acting Assistant Commissioner Zane Hooper said Hunt’s senseless killing had profoundly affected police.
“But that pales in comparison to the horrific loss suffered by his family.”
Hooper said police awaited the outcome of the IPCA investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further while that process was underway.
A WorkSafe spokesman acknowledged Diane and the loss of her son.
“Nobody is above the requirement to keep people healthy and safe at work, which is why WorkSafe engaged with police between 2020 and 2022.”
WorkSafe determined the most appropriate intervention it could make was overseeing internal police reviews and actions taken in response to Hunt’s murder. It was satisfied that necessary improvement had been actioned, evaluated and reviewed.
“This conclusion was based on the information provided through briefings, training observations, speaking with current officers, and follow-up documentation provided by police.
Feedback from frontline police indicated the changes had “increased their confidence and ability to keep themselves and others safe”.
Lane Nichols is Deputy Head of News and a senior journalist for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
