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The mother of Halatau Naitoko was last night waiting to give birth to her ninth child - a boy she will name in her dead son's honour.
And Ivoni Fuimaono reiterated her desire to meet the armed offenders squad member who shot Halatau on Auckland's Northwestern Motorway.
"I really, really want to see the person. I want to see the face."
Fuimaono said she was not angry about the shooting and never had been. Her family were grateful to police for the full escort provided from their home in Mangere to the Mangere Lawn Cemetery on Friday to bury "Hala", she said.
Police had provided buses to take family and friends to the cemetery, had closed streets, stopped traffic and provided a full escort.
"We went through red lights. Every time we went past [police] on the road they would salute. I felt like a king. I was crying but they were happy tears."
The family fed 2000 mourners on Thursday night, 1000 on Friday and were expecting many more over the weekend, including at the third night of prayer tonight. Police had helped with "quite a lot" of money and food, she said.
Fuimaono spent yesterday at Middlemore Hospital after her husband Kepu Tepu Tepu was admitted with a badly infected foot.
Last weekend, after they had identified their son at the morgue, the couple began cleaning up the backyard in preparation for the thousands of visitors and Tepu Tepu stood on a rusty nail.
Fuimaono's baby is overdue and she said she hoped he would be as hard-working as her late son.
A police spokeswoman said the armed offenders squad member responsible for the shooting had not yet been identified. She was not sure if or when a meeting would take place with Fuimaono but Police Commissioner Howard Broad was keen for it to happen.
