Robbers found in house with baby

By SCOTT INGLIS

Armed police have recaptured two dangerous robbers who bashed a constable during a daring police station escape.

Charles Paki and Tasi Fepale were arrested in the driveway of an Auckland home yesterday after the armed offenders squad swooped on the property.

The arrests followed an intensive police hunt for the pair, who bashed Senior Constable Jim Davey as they broke out of the Tokoroa Police Station cells on Monday night.

They stole an unmarked police car and drove to Auckland, dumping the car in Mt Wellington.

Police early yesterday believed the men were holed up in a Northcote Rd house where a woman and her baby lived.

Two detectives hid in a room above a neighbouring shopping centre butchery and staked out the house.

Early in the afternoon, the armed offenders squad swooped, surrounding the house.

An officer using a loud hailer demanded the pair give themselves up.

Paki, aged 18, and Fepale, 21, emerged bare-chested from the house with the woman, who was holding the child.

The pair abused and swore at the police, who asked the woman to stay still while the men walked towards police. They then lay down and their hands were tied.

No shots were fired and the men did not put up a fight.

Detective Sergeant Mark Loper, of Tokoroa CIB, said a replica slug gun was found in the house.

The pair, who last week admitted seven armed service station and takeaway bar raids over two days, will appear in the Auckland District Court today on fresh charges.

Next-door neighbour Moheofo Filisonuu, 18, and her family got a shock when they saw a contingent of armed officers running up their driveway and around the back, where they could see through a hedge.

One of the police knocked on their door, showed them photographs of the fugitives and asked if they knew them or had seen them.

Miss Filisonuu was frightened. "I was just so scared. I told my mum and my sisters to come away from the windows because I didn't know what was going to happen."

Paki's mother, Audrey Smith, who on Tuesday begged her son to give himself up, told the Herald she was relieved the hunt ended peacefully.
Battling burglary

Battling burglary - a Herald series
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