Handcuffed teen steals police car after locking officer out

Maaki Te Kuirau Emery will be sentenced on January 23. Photo/file

Details have emerged as to how a handcuffed teenager was able to lock a police officer out of his own car before driving off - as the officer shot at the fleeing car.

Maaki Te Huirau Emery, 18, last month pleaded guilty to four charges, including stealing a police car on October 17. He also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and escaping police custody on the same date and aggravated robbery of a person of cigarettes and $300 on October 15.

He is in custody and will be sentenced on January 23.

The police summary of facts has just been released to the Rotorua Daily Post.

According to the summary Emery had been identified as a person of interest in relation to two offences committed in Murupara in the prior two weeks.

One of those took place on October 15, when Emery and an associate walked behind the counter of the Murupara Store on Pine Drive.

When Emery was confronted by a female store attendant he chased her before punching her in the back. The pair took off with cigarettes, a cash register and about $300.

Emery's description had been circulated to local police, the summary said.

On October 17 at 6.48pm a police officer saw Emery walking along Rimu St and recognised the clothing he was wearing as that worn by the offender in the robbery two days earlier.

The officer, who was taking two juveniles home to their parents at the time, stopped and spoke with Emery.

When he was satisfied Emery was the person responsible for the robbery he advised Emery he was under arrest. The officer placed handcuffs on Emery's hands in front of him and sat him in the front passenger seat of his marked police patrol car.

The summary states that when the officer arrived to drop the young people off, he got out and spoke to their caregiver.

While Emery was in the front of the police patrol car alone, he locked the officer out of the car and ignored requests to open the doors.

He then "rapidly reversed out of the driveway" and accelerated away, ignoring the officer's commands to stop, the summary stated.

The summary said the officer "has taken steps to deflate the front left tyre of the vehicle as it drove off".

Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Andy McGregor said in a media statement at the time that two shots were fired by a police officer during the incident.

As he was fleeing, Emery drove at speed, on the wrong side of the road, forcing at least two children to get out of the way to avoid being hit, failed to give way and drove through a pedestrian crossing and over speed humps at speed.

"He has lost control crossing the second speed bump, swerving towards the curb."

Emery then travelled towards Galatea with the front left tyre disintegrating, eventually driving on just the rim.

Emery lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a ditch on Gibbs Rd before abandoning the vehicle and taking off on foot.

He was arrested three weeks later in Murupara.