Latest news with #LynnMall
RNZ News
29-06-2025
- RNZ News
Missing teen Whetu Bennett found safe six days after vanishing from Auckland mall
Whetu Bennett, 17, seen on CCTV at LynnMall. Photo: Supplied/police A 17-year-old who went missing from a West Auckland mall six days ago has been found safe. Whetu Bennett, was last seen at LynnMall last Tuesday. She had been living with her mother in Morrinsville before moving to Auckland three weeks ago with her 28-year-old boyfriend. A police spokesperson confirmed she had been found safe and well on Monday. The spokesperson did not give any further details on how Whetu was found but said police wanted to thank the public for providing them with information. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
28-06-2025
- RNZ News
'We just want her home': Missing 17-year-old last seen at mall in Auckland's New Lynn
Police are looking for missing 17-year-old Whetu Bennett, who was last seen at LynnMall in Auckland on Wednesday. Photo: Supplied / Police Police are seeking the public's help to find a 17-year-old girl who was last seen at an Auckland mall. Police said Whetu Bennett hadn't been seen since about 12pm on Wednesday when she was at LynnMall, in the suburb of New Lynn. However, Whetu's sister Janet Jones said her sister was last seen with her partner at Lynnmall on Tuesday around midday. Whetu was wearing a beige top, a black dress and sunglasses on the day she went missing, she said. Jones said Whetu's partner contacted their mother in the early hours of Thursday to tell her that he hadn't seen her since that day. She reported her sister going missing to the police on Thursday as soon as she found out from her mother. Jones said she understood Whetu and her partner had an argument at the mall and her partner had bused home from the mall by himself. She said Whetu moved to Auckland from Hamilton about two or three weeks ago to be with her partner and look for work. She hadn't spoken to Whetu since the move, as Whetu doesn't have a mobile phone, she said. Jones said if Whetu needed to message anyone, it would need to be done through her partner's phone. Jones said it's unusual for Whetu to be missing for so long. "No word from her over this amount of days is wild... at least one of our siblings, we come from a family of ten, one of us would've heard something from her at least. "All her siblings are waiting to hear from her, and we just want her to come home, just to message us and one of us will come and get her wherever she is," she added. A police spokesperson said on Saturday night, Whetu was still missing and police would assess information as it came in. The spokesperson said a family member reported Whetu missing and that the teenager had recently moved to Auckland from Waikato. Police re-posted the appeal three hours ago and asked anybody who knows the whereabouts of Whetu to contact police on 105 and quote the police reference number 250626/5181. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
28-06-2025
- RNZ News
Missing 17-year-old last seen at a mall in Auckland's New Lynn
Police are looking for missing 17-year-old Whetu Bennett, who was last seen at LynnMall in Auckland on Wednesday. Photo: Supplied / Police Police are seeking the public's help to find a 17-year-old girl who was last seen at an Auckland mall. Police said Whetu Bennett hadn't been seen since about 12pm on Wednesday when she was at LynnMall, in the suburb of New Lynn. However, a family member who posted on Facebook said her "baby sister" hadn't been seen since Tuesday. The woman said Whetu was wearing a black dress, beige top and sunglasses. "Her partner has called my mum in Morrinsville to inform her that he hasn't seen her since yesterday," the sister posted on Wednesday morning. "She isn't from Auckland and hasn't got anyone up there she knows. Please share my post. I'm absolutely [heartbroken emoji]. She said Whetu had no phone to call or message her family on. The post had been reposted by a New Zealand Missing Persons page and other family members had friends had also made desperate pleas for Whetu to contact them or go to a police station. A police spokesperson said on Saturday night, Whetu was still missing and police would assess information as it came in. The spokesperson said a family member reported Whetu missing and that the teenager had recently moved to Auckland from Waikato. Police re-posted the appeal three hours ago and asked anybody who knows the whereabouts of Whetu to contact police on 105 and quote the police reference number 250626/5181. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
06-06-2025
- RNZ News
Police knew LynnMall terrorist Ahamed Samsudeen was likely to commit an attack before immigration hearing, inquest hears
Ahamed Samsudeen. Photo: New Zealand Herald / Greg Bowker Police knew about the risk of Ahamed Samsudeen committing an attack before an immigration tribunal appeal hearing to determine his deportation, an inquest has heard. The inquest into the death of Samsudeen heard evidence the police had known in the month before the LynnMall terror attack that he was likely to commit an attack before an immigration tribunal appeal hearing that was scheduled to take place on 13 September 2021. A lawyer assisting the Coroner, Erin McGill, in her examining of a senior police officer from the National Security Group, referenced an application for surveillance warrant made by the police on 17 August 2021, which raised concerns about the risk of an attack before the appeal hearing. Samsudeen was at the time being stripped of his refugee status, but his deportation was pending the outcome of his appeal. McGill asked the senior police officer whether the team surveilling Samsudeen would be aware of this information relating to the risk of an attack, to which the officer said "I would've thought so". McGill acknowledged that around the end of August, the 13 September hearing date was being rescheduled to a later date due to delays during the Covid-19 lockdown and the fact that Samsudeen had changed his lawyer. It was unclear when the rescheduled date would be. According to a timeline from a coordinated review of the management of Samsudeen , released by joint government agencies in late 2022, Samsudeen first entered New Zealand from Sri Lanka on a student visa in 2011 and subsequently was granted refugee status. He was known to police for posting objectionable material depicting graphic violence as early as 2016. In 2017, a former flatmate of Samsudeen reported to police that Samsudeen told him he wanted to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and that he'd commit a knife attack if he was prevented from doing that. Samsudeen was arrested in May 2017 at an airport after attempting to fly overseas, and was charged with possession of objectionable material, and would spend nearly four years in remand in custody. The senior police officer from the National Security Group was asked whether the terror attack could've been stopped sooner if a surveillance officer had followed Samsudeen into the mall on 3 September. Samsudeen had just been released from prison seven weeks prior to the attack. He was serving a 12-month community sentence and was under 24-7 surveillance by covert police officers due to the high risk he posed to national security. The inquest heard that a surveillance officer - referred to as Officer D - had followed Samsudeen on the day, but decided not to follow him into the mall. Under questioning by McGill around why Officer D made that call, the senior officer said Officer D had been surveilling Samsudeen for seven weeks and noticed nothing unusual in his behaviour that day. He also conceded that Officer D likely didn't know that the Countdown (now Woolworths) supermarket sold knives. When asked by McGill whether there would've been a different approach to surveillance on the day, if the surveillance team knew the supermarket sold knives, the senior police officer said he couldn't directly answer that. McGill also noted that Officer D's evidence stated that Samsudeen was making positive plans for the future around the time of the attack, including making enquiries about employment and accommodation options. After a long line of questions, McGill asked the senior officer if he thought the attack could've been stopped sooner if Officer D had followed Samsudeen into the mall. The senior officer said "it had the potential to raise the alarm slightly earlier", but added it's uncertain whether it would've stopped the attack earlier. He said due to the covert nature of surveillance, the officer was unlikely to have been in the same aisle as Samsudeen to see what he was doing. He conceded that if a surveillance member had seen Samsudeen taking the knife off the shelves, that would've triggered the team to call the Special Tactics Group. Earlier when Coroner Marcus Elliott opened the inquest, he said it would not be revisiting the conclusion of the Independent Police Conduct Authority finding that two officers were legally justified in shooting Samsudeen, and that the surveillance officer who decided not to follow Samsudeen into the supermarket initially, had acted reasonably. However, he said that does not mean there was nothing to learn from the attack, and the inquest would discuss recommendations. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
05-06-2025
- RNZ News
Police believed LynnMall terrorist Ahamed Samsudeen could attack 'with little to no warning'
Ahamed Samsudeen took a knife from a supermarket shelf and stabbed six people. Photo: Supplied Police believed terrorist Ahamed Samsudeen could carry out an attack "with little to no warning" at least a month before he attacked shoppers at an Auckland supermarket. A coronial inquest into Samsudeen's death continues today, after he was shot by police during a knife attack at Countdown LynnMall on 3 September, 2021. The coroner's counsel Anna Adams read the results of a threat assessment of Samsudeen from 5 August, 2021. "Based on current information available regarding intent and capability Samsudeen is assessed to pose a high threat for a lone actor ideologically motivated attack," she read. "And based on current information if an attack was to occur it would be of low sophistication, e.g use of a knife or a vehicle, and could occur with little to no warning." The coronial inquest continued to examine Samsudeen's criminal history. Samsudeen spent almost four years remanded in prison after police found weapons and objectionable material at his home in 2018. Providing evidence on behalf of police, Detective Senior Sergeant Jason McIntosh read the charges Samsudeen faced during that time. "Samsudeen [was] charged with the offences including possession of offensive weapons: a hunting knife and throwing star... And the possession of objectionable publications, [including] an islamic state video on how to kill non-muslims in which a masked man cuts the throat and wrists of a restrained prisoner," he recounted. By the time Samsudeen was sentenced in 2021, he had spent so much time in prison that authorities had no choice but to release him. Anna Adams summarised the High Court's decision. "The High Court concluded that because Mr Samsudeen had spent so much time in prison already he had to be credited that as time served and therefore the only option was to release him on supervision," she explained. She turned to McIntosh for clarification. "In terms of the position that police were in as of July 2021, is it a fair characterisation that the police were dealing with a person in the community who law enforcement were very concerned about but fundamentally was free to be in the community on supervision?" She asked. "Yes," he replied. The inquest continues with a forensic analysis of footage captured during the attack, including security footage. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
