• Kaoss Price was shot and killed by police in April 2022 after crashing into a patrol car and attempting to seize another vehicle. 
• In a rare move, the IPCA investigation has found police were not justified in firing the shot that killed Price. 
• NZ Police has previously said the shooting was justified and no charges would be laid against the officer who fired the fatal shot. 

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has issued a rare ruling that a fatal shooting by a police officer was not justified in a new report that details the final moments of Taranaki’s Kaoss Price. 

But it has also said it does not recommend a prosecution of the officer who fired the fatal shot. 

The report says: “We found that the fatal shot was excessive force on the balance of probabilities, but we do not recommend police lay criminal charges or commence an employment process against the officer. 

“While excessive use of force constitutes serious misconduct under the Police Code of Conduct, in the circumstances of this case, we do not recommend police commence an employment process.” 

The IPCA report said that the officer who fired the fatal shot was justified in arming himself but could have used a taser in the final confrontation. Price was also tasered and bitten by a police dog. 

It’s a finding which Price’s family have described as conflicting, saying it’s a relief to know the shooting was unjustified but they cannot understand why there are no consequences. 

Margaret Kennard, Price’s grandmother, said the finding appeared to set different laws for police than the public. 

“So what am I supposed to think? IPCA said police weren’t justified in killing my boy, but nobody is being held accountable for gunning down an unarmed 22-year-old? Kaoss is dead. If it had been anybody else, not from the police, who killed him, they’d be in court for this. Why are the police allowed to kill?” 

Kaoss Price was shot and killed by police in 2022. The IPCA has found the fatal shooting to be not justified. Photo / Mike Scott 

Price was shot and killed in April 2022 by a police officer three metres away while inside a vehicle he was trying to take in order to escape from police. The shooting was almost immediately followed by another officer using a taser on Price, who was unarmed when he was killed. 

The IPCA has carried out 42 investigations into fatal police shootings since 1990. A review of records shows Price’s death is the second time it has been ruled a fatal shooting to be not justified. The first such finding was the death of Tangaru Noere Turia in 2021 in Auckland. 

Kennard said her grandson was no “angel” but didn’t deserve to die in the way he did. 

“We’re supposed to trust the police to uphold and enforce the law. They are not above it. We give them guns. They are killing our kids. The police investigated themselves and found they did nothing wrong. Now the IPCA says killing Kaoss was unjustified. 

“It feels like if you’re not a cop you have to live in a world of laws, but the police get to live in another. Kaoss wasn’t an angel but he didn’t deserve to die like this. The police need to bloody well do something.” 

Price was a father-of-three, survived by his children, his younger sister and brother, his parents Jules Hana and Leigh Price, Kennard and a wider whānau still grieving over his death. 

Price’s mum Jules Hana said there had been hope there would be justice for his death. 

“It’s still hard, every day,” she said. 

Jules Hana, mother of Kaoss Price, at her home in Bell Block, New Plymouth. Photo / Mike Scott 

The revelation that Price was tasered appears to answer questions by loved ones who dressed his body for his funeral, finding what appeared to be two entry wounds, suggesting he had been shot twice. 

However, the IPCA report revealed Price had been tasered as well as shot. Use of a taser – particularly prolonged use – can cause flesh to burn as can gunshots at close range. 

Price was shot and killed by police in 2022 on State Highway 3 between New Plymouth and Waitara. 

He had been following a friend who was pulled up by police when, according to officers, he drove past the two stopped vehicles before doing a U-turn and ramming the Volkswagon he was driving into the patrol car. 

Eyewitnesses described to the Herald how Price abandoned the Volkswagon and ran down the road attempting to enter other vehicles. 

Police investigators marking up bullet holes in the Volkswagen driven by Kaoss Price, 22. Photo / Supplied 

He was shot and killed while trying to get into a car that was stopped along with others by the unfolding incident. 

Price, 22, had not been long out of prison at the time he was killed. He was unarmed and no weapons were recovered at the scene of his death. 

Police said the shooting was justified because of Price’s efforts to take control of other vehicles and the risk he would pose to others should he escape in one. 

Detective Superintendent Uraia Vakaruru said the police’s critical incident investigation found “the force used by officers was legally justified and there is no criminal liability for the actions taken by officers that night”. 

Lawyers Christopher Stevenson KC and Julia Spelman are acting for Price’s whānau. They said it appeared to be only the second time the IPCA had found a police shooting to be unjustified. The fatal shooting of Tangaru Noere Turia in 2021 was ruled not justified by the IPCA. In both cases, it recommended no further action. 

At the time Price was killed, police had fatally shot 39 people since 1990. The number now stands at 46. 

Leigh Price, left, the father of Kaoss Price, right, pictured with a fresh tattoo inked not long before he died. Leigh Price tattooed KP22 in memory of his son and the year he died. Photo / Mike Scott 

The rate of shootings out-stripped those in England and Wales, where 77 people had been killed by police shootings over the same time period. Adjusting for population differences, New Zealand police fatally shoot people 11 times more often than those in England and Wales. 

A data analysis by Radio NZ the month before Price was killed found the IPCA had carried out investigations into 35 of the 39 people killed, discovering six were not holding a weapon when shot and 14 did not have a firearm. 

In 25 of 35 fatal shootings, the person killed had caused no injury to anyone before being shot. In eight cases, only property was damaged. Of the 35 fatally shot, 10 were shot in the back or had at least one bullet wound in the back. 

David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for 35 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.