Killing in Dairy No Surprise to Police

Source: The Indian News Jan 27, 2008

Police say violent aggravated robberies occur so frequently in Auckland that they are not surprised someone has been killed.

A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death yesterday in an apparent robbery of his parents' South Auckland dairy.

The officer in charge of the Counties-Manukau crime squad - the team of officers immediately called to investigate all serious crime - Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Gutry, told the Weekend Herald last night that he was not surprised by yesterday's death.

He has worked in the area for 21 years and said robberies and violence had been going on there for years, and teenage boys were often to blame.

"It would not be unusual to have one or two of these robberies of dairies or similar liquor stores or service stations each day. A lot of the offenders are young teenage males that really, for the effort that goes in, get very little in return - it's usually cash or cigarettes or liquor, that sort of thing.

"We've had people shot in dairies, there was a guy killed in a liquor store in Manurewa, stabbed in a robbery several years ago. It's happened before. It doesn't take much for it to become violent and it's certainly no surprise that someone's died today."

Mr Gutry said South Auckland was not the only place where the violence was occurring - Auckland City reports aggravated robberies (defined as theft accompanied by violence) most days and the North Shore about every fortnight.

While police worked hard with teams focused on problem youths and at-risk families, he said, they could not prevent all violence and society needed to take stock of the problem.