An easy call – the Police were very justified

The Herald reports:

A shirtless man, wielding a garden tool, chased a bloodied woman and her crying baby down a Wellington street and assaulted her before police tasered him, causing a fall that left him with a serious head injury. 

He fell to the ground, knocked his head, and suffered a brain injury and memory loss. The police watchdog has found the three officers acted appropriately. …

She was reportedly bleeding and screaming as he was hacking at the wooden shelter with half of a hedge-trimming scissor.

When police arrived, the man was standing at a bus shelter, where the woman and baby were sitting, and he was holding the blade.

Police distracted him and the woman escaped from the bus shelter behind him, but when he noticed her running away, things escalated.

Amid the chaos, with the man shouting at police to “f*** off”, he began moving towards her.

In an effort to protect the woman, an officer shot their Taser at the man.

But that shot did not work properly, and he began ripping out the Taser cords.

He turned to face police, only 3-4 metres away, with the blade still in hand.

Two other officers at the scene both fired their Tasers at him.

His body went stiff, and he fell to the ground, hitting his head on the road, causing a brain injury.

In many countries that man would have been shot dead. He was armed with a blade, had been assaulting a woman, and refused to back down. He is lucky he only was tasered.