This could turn nasty for NZ

[philw]

this has been going for a while now 


 

got to love Media reporting

<http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25447507-401,00.html>

'Rambo' gunman 'ready to die' in New Zealand, Napier siege


ank brought in as Napier siege continues
Officer still lies where he as shot dead
Suspect described as "one-man army"
A TANK has been called in as police try to end a siege that has brought a New Zealand city to a virtual standstill and left an officer lying dead for over a day outside a suburban house.

The gunman has been holed up in the property in the normally quiet North Island town of Napier since a low-key cannabis raid by police ended in a hail of gunfire yesterday morning (AEST).

Follow up to the minute updates on the siege from the NZ Herald website

Senior Constable Len Snee, 53, was gunned down and police have been unable to retrieve his body , which lies next to his police car, for over 24-hours because it is the line of fire from the house.

A police dog was also shot dead, with two other officers seriously wounded and in hospital.

A neighbour who was apparently known to the suspected shooter, Jan Molenaar, was also hit.

A light armoured vehicle (LAV) has been borrowed from the army but  it appears Police Superintendent Sam Hoyle said this afternoon he remains hopeful that the gunman will talk and give himself up..

Supt Hoyle said the "incredibly tense" situation could end in minutes or could go on for days.

He said communications with the gunman Mr Molenaar were ongoing, with negotiators both calling him and him calling officers.

Police are also speaking with Mr Molenaar's friends and associates to try to better understand his motivations.

"One-man army"

Mr Molenaar  has been described as a "one-man army" who has accepted he's going to die.

Supt Hoyle said Mr Molenaar was a "complex character" and was prone to mood swings.

He has a great deal of ammunition and has fired at police using more than one calibre of bullet indicating he has several weapons.

Friends of Mr Molenaar told the Dominion Post newspaper he had been a territorial soldier attached to the armoured corps from 1982-88.

They described him as a "one-man army" and a "nightmare waiting to happen".

"The guy is a total Rambo, OK? I've never met another person that's fitter than him," said a man described as his business partner.

"He's a very good marksman, he's just the wrong person.

"Wrong person, wrong place, wrong time, the police should have f**king known. That's their business."

Others told journalists he had known police had been watching the place and was likely to have wired it with explosives.

"There's enough there to take that house off the face of the planet," his friend Tony Moore told the newspaper.

But Mr Moore said Mr Molenaar had acted as if he intended to die when saying goodbye to his partner, who left the property a short time after the siege began.

"He said 'Goodbye, hon', had a good blubber about it, and then: 'Best you go.'

"So he's already accepted his fate."

Terririfed town

Schools and businesses in the area of the siege have been ordered shut and people evacuated from the surrounding area.

People living in houses visible from the siege house have been told not to stay inside and keep away from the windows.

[Hazcat]

DAYUM!  This will give the anti's loads of 'ammo'!

I can see it now "All guns must be turned in to the local police station for safe keeping when not in use".

[tt11758]

DAYUM!  This will give the anti's loads of 'ammo'!

I can see it now "All guns must be turned in to the local police station for safe keeping when not in use".

That's been suggested, Haz.

[twyacht]

DAYUM!  This will give the anti's loads of 'ammo'!

I can see it now "All guns must be turned in to the local police station for safe keeping when not in use".

I think England tried this, right before they required them to be turned in for good.

[philw]

Rambo-style killing echoes past shootings
BY YVONNE TAHANA
9 May 2009
New Zealand Herald

Three other police officers have died in cases involving sieges and an obsession with guns

Senior Constable Len Snee's killing bears haunting similarities to three other police deaths in the line of duty.

Constable Snee was shot dead on Thursday as he attended what police described as a low level routine cannabis bust.

His alleged shooter Jan Molenaar modelled himself on Rambo - the monosyllabic 1980s military man made famous by actor Sylvester Stallone.

Friends said the former Territorial Army soldier was a ``dab hand'' with guns and explosives - a loner with few close friends.

Gun control advocate Professor Philip Alpers said researchers characterised those types of offenders as ``pseudo-commandos''. Given to fantasy, dressing in camouflage or black, with an obsessive fascination with firearms, preferring semi-automatic military-style weapons.

``It is very common in the United States. There's a lot of copycating going on amongst pseudo-commandos, they are very often found to have clippings on their bedroom walls of previous shootings. They were obviously fantasising about them.

``One thing that's very common is a fascination with firearms and with all the things that come with that - the right to keep and bear arms, the fear of government, the hatred of police, anti-authoritarian, exactly the type of people who disobey gun laws are the people who are most likely to cause damage like this.''

Three other police officers have died in situations where sieges and an obsession with guns featured in the tragedies.

Sergeant Stewart Guthrie, 41, was one of 13 killed by David Gray in 1990 at Aramoana during a 23-hour rampage. A loner, Gray killed using a Norinco AK47.

Six years later former territorial Terence Thompson, 43, shot dead Constable Glenn McKibbin, in Flaxmere. In 2002 Feilding Detective Constable Duncan Taylor was shot dead by teenager Daniel Luff. During a four-hour siege he boasted to negotiators if anyone tried anything they'd suffer.

"Gun control advocate Professor Philip Alpers said researchers characterised those types of offenders as ``pseudo-commandos''. Given to fantasy, dressing in camouflage or black, with an obsessive fascination with firearms, preferring semi-automatic military-style weapons."

This Alpers poofter really is a class act isn't he? Maybe this Molenaar is a pseudo-commando in the same way as Alpers is a pseudo-academic? Though it seems clear Molenaar has less pseudo and more experience on his resume.

just dont mention all the killings made with illegal firearms as the numbers wouldnt balance too well.

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