NZ police shooting: Second fugitive captured, murder accused in court

By RNZ News

A woman at the centre of a manhunt after a police shooting in New Zealand yesterday has been arrested in West Auckland.

Police said Natalie Bracken was found just after 3pm today, taken into custody without incident, “and is assisting police with enquiries”.

Natalie Bracken … in custody. Image: NZ Police/RNZ

She was wanted on warrants for driving charges and as an accessory to the murder of Constable Matthew Hunt, and is now due to appear in Waitākere District Court on Monday morning.

READ MORE: NZ shooting of police officer ‘shocking’

Waitematā police officer Hunt, 28, was killed, and another officer was shot in the leg amid a hail of bullets fired after a car they had tried to pull over crashed on Friday, in the West Auckland suburb of Massey.

A man who had been loading things into his car on the roadside at the time was also injured when a vehicle hit him. He and the injured officer remain in a stable condition in Auckland Hospital.

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Yesterday a 24-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving.

He was granted interim name suppression at a court appearance via videolink today, and is scheduled to appear in the Auckland High Court on July 8.

Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster earlier today said the police force across New Zealand was mourning Hunt’s death.

Constable Matthew Dennis Hunt, who was shot and later died in Auckland yesterday. Image: NZ Police/RNZ

The 28-year-old criminology major fullfilled a lifelong dream when he began working as a police officer in 2017, after earlier working as a case manager at Auckland Prison.

Until yesterday, the most recent killing of a police officer in New Zealand was in 2009 in Napier.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.