Latest news with #NewLynn
RNZ News
6 days ago
- RNZ News
Auckland Council warns irresponsible dog owners to expect consequences
The council says too many dog owners are failing to take responsibility for their pets. (File photo) Photo: Irresponsible dog owners should expect to face consequences, Auckland Council has warned. The council said it had prosecuted 611 dog owners over the past five years for bites, maulings and other attacks. A New Lynn dog owner was most recently sentenced to 70 hours of community service and ordered to pay $500 in reparation after their rottweiler seriously injured a pedestrian in October 2023. The passerby was left with a 15 centimetre wound that required surgery. "Too many dog owners are failing to take responsibility. We are seeing a rise in serious attacks, and its clear many owners don't care, or don't believe they'll be held responsible," Auckland Council's general manager of compliance Robert Irvine said. "Let us be clear: they will. Owning a dog comes with a duty to ensure the safety of the community. If you can't meet that duty, you shouldn't own a dog." The renewed warning comes as dog attacks surge. In 2020, the council logged just under 2000 dog attacks. But between June of 2024 and June of 2025, almost 3000 dog attacks and 15,000 roaming dogs were reported to council. A roaming dog seen in South Auckland earlier this year. (File photo) Photo: Nick Monro The council attributed the rise in attacks to a decline in desexing and a boom of dog ownership following the Covid-19 lockdowns. "Some of these injuries are gruesome. They leave physical and psychological scars," head of prosecutions John Kang said. "What's worse is that many of these incidents are entirely preventable - they often happen when owners fail to control their dogs or turn a blind eye to aggressive behaviour. "We will continue to prosecute where criminal action is justified under the Solicitor-General's Prosecution Guidelines." 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
23-06-2025
- RNZ News
Teens arrested after aggravated robbery, fleeing in stolen car in Auckland
Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER A 14-year-old and a 16-year-old have been arrested following an aggravated robbery in Auckland's suburb of New Lynn on Monday morning. The police said one of them was armed with a knife when they entered a convenience store on Parker Avenue about 8.30am. They reportedly stole the till before fleeing in a stolen car. The pair were arrested after police found the stolen vehicle nearby. They will be appearing in the Waitākere Youth Court. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- RNZ News
Coronial inquest into LynnMall attack completes first phase
Ahamed Samsudeen coming out of the New Lynn train station, on the day of the attack on 3 September, 2021. Photo: Supplied The first phase of the coronial inquest into the LynnMall attack four years ago has concluded in Auckland on Friday. Ahamed Samsudeen was shot and killed by police, after stabbing four women and one man with a kitchen knife at a Countdown supermarket in Auckland's New Lynn. Two others were injured trying to stop him. Phase one of the inquiry began last week, with two more phases expected to sit later this year. Samsudeen was granted refugee status in 2013, identified by the SIS as a terrorist threat in early 2017 and under surveillance at the time of the attack. Coroner Marcus Elliott set out the path the inquest would take last year, ruling it would cover Samsudeen's path to extremism, his management in the community and what happened on the day he died. In the first phase covering the day of the attack, the coroner heard from survivors, who talked about their experiences and the impact the attack had on them in the years since. CCTV footage was examined frame by frame, with police staff providing evidence on tracking Samsudeen's movements and the actions taken by officers leading up to his shooting. Giving closing statements, police counsel Alysha McClintock said the task of the coroner was a delicate one. "In my submission, great, great care is needed with the precision of hindsight that we now have and with the precision of these stills we have been carefully working our way through," she said. "We have to take great care in trying to analyse in the cold light of day, in this courtroom, that material and use it as a possible ability to essentially rewrite what should have happened. In my submission, that is very dangerous indeed." Earlier in the day, the inquest heard officers had no option but to use lethal force , after failing to de-escalate the situation. McClintock said questions around using a taser to subdue Samsudeen were obvious, but ultimately, that wouldn't have changed what happened. "The evidence that has been given in this inquiry, in my submission, has made it clear that the carrying of a taser would have made no difference in this situation, given the risk presented by what Mr Samsudeen was doing at the critical time," McClintock said. Representing officers involved in the attack, lawyer Todd Simmonds said their decision not to follow Ahamed Samsudeen into the supermarket that day was sound. "It was, knowing what they knew at the time, an appropriate decision to make," he said. Simmonds echoed McClintock's warning about hindsight. He said surveillance officers were not equipped to follow Samsudeen into the supermarket. "Even if they had followed Mr Samsudeen into the supermarket on the afternoon in question... they would not have been in a position to incapacitate Mr Samsudeen from his ongoing attack on members of the public," Simmonds said. Simmonds asked Coroner Marcus Elliott to consider acknowledging the actions of police on the day in his findings. Representing the interests of Ahamed Samsudeen's family, lawyer Fletcher Pilditch said the benefit of the coronial process was that the coroner wasn't bound to label something simply wrong or right. "The court's not bound by those polar positions" he said. "The court's in the position where it can simply, calmly, with the benefit of a great deal of information, reflect upon the facts and invite those that were involved... in this incident to simply reflect on those facts and to invite consideration going forward. "That can be done, as I say, without any criticism, without any second-guessing of the IPCA or the findings of justified use of force - it can simply be the presentation of facts." Pilditch said earlier intervention could have made a difference. "His window of opportunity to inflict harm was the very opportunity created by not being surveilled within that time," he said. "The hard reality is that, if there had been an earlier intervention, a) no-one or less people may have been harmed, and b) Mr Samsudeen may well have found himself alone in the supermarket, but for armed [Special Tactic Group] officers. Lead counsel assisting the coroner Anna Adams was the last to give a closing statement, recapping the facts of the case, the surveillance of Samsudeen, his radical terrorist ideas and interests, and his history. She said Samsudeen's death affected many people. "First of all, of course, Mr Samsudeen has loving, surviving family members, who live overseas and grieve his death. "There are the survivors, there are the officers, people most affected by this phase of the inquest, but there are also, of course, Mr Samsudeen's lawyer, the people at the mosque where he stayed - they have all suffered trauma as a result of these events." Coroner Marcus Elliott concluded the phase, thanking those who took part. He acknowledged the profound personal consequences and harm suffered by so many due to the events leading up to and during the attack, before finishing with a karakia. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- RNZ News
LynnMall attack inquest: Police had no option but to shoot Ahamed Samsudeen
Samsudeen was shot and killed by police at a Countdown supermarket in Auckland's New Lynn. Photo: 2021 Getty Images / NZ Herald / Greg Bowker The coronial inquest into LynnMall terrorist Ahamed Samsudeen has heard officers had no option but to shoot him during his attack at an Auckland supermarket four years ago. Samsudeen was shot and killed by police after stabbing four women and one man with a kitchen knife at a Countdown supermarket in Auckland's New Lynn. Two others were injured trying to stop him. Inspector Derek Sarney told the inquest Samsudeen did not cooperate with officers trying to de-escalate the situation. "The officers were unable to de-escalated the threat any further, therefore, they had to remain with lethal force being the option presented to Mr Samsudeen," he said. Offenders must show they are listening to commands so officers feel the threat reducing, something Sarney said Samsudeen did not do. "Therefore, any other option, other than the firearm, was not available to them without increasing significant risk to themselves or members of the public." Sarney said police believed Samsudeen posed a risk of death or grievous bodily harm to the public as well as the officers present during the attack. "Mr Samsudeen's actions were unpredictable, uncooperative, threatening by carriage and use of a large bladed weapon, and were goal driven to resist arrest by force," he said. Closing statements for phase one of the inquest are expected this afternoon. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
