MELBOURNE: A 30-year-old Indian man was fatally shot by three robbers in his liquor store in the New Zealand capital, sending shockwaves in the immigrant community which has accused the police of a delayed response to the incident.
Navtej Singh, a father of three girls- the eldest being five, died on Monday morning after battling for life for 36 hours.
Navtej immigrated from Punjab to New Zealand six years ago with his family and set up a liquor store in south Auckland three months ago where the armed robbers shot him in cold blood this weekend.
"A total of 15 bottles of beer and maybe some change, a couple of dollars. That's the price that has been put on this 30-year-old man today, and I feel that this is a national shame," Veer Khar of the Indian Central Association said.
Detective inspector Jim Gallagher said video footage reveals the three offenders who entered the store around 9 PM were male Pacific Islanders or indigenous Maori.
Adding to the pain, as Navtej lay injured on the shop floor, a man unconnected with the robbery walked in and stole a box of alcopops, video footage from the store's CCTV showed.
Navtej's friend and family, however, claimed that he could have been saved if the police and emergency services had not taken nearly an hour to reach the site after they were alerted.
"He might still be alive if they came quicker," family spokesman Sandeep Verma told Fairfax Media.
Verma believes the police were delayed by following a GPS system that failed to disclose the road was not linked to the motorway.
"Ambulance people asked me whether offenders, people who did this were at the liquor shop, are they still around. So my question is, if I am calling in the carpark, from the carpark, from my mobile to the police, what are they expecting, that the offenders will be there?," the victim's colleague Gurwinder Singh said.
But the police have defended their actions.
In any emergency callout involving firearms, police had to follow a standard procedure to ensure the safety of everyone, Gallagher said.
Ambulance staff said they had a vehicle ready within 10 minutes but had to wait for police to declare the area safe.
"Our crews were actually on the scene inside of 10 minutes," St John regional operations manager Gary Salmon told Radio New Zealand.
"The community is in shock, and when we actually see the family, the victim's wife, three young children, everyone is clearly in shock they can't speak at the moment," said Daljit Singh of the NZ Sikh Society.
Navtej's aging father is in Punjab ansd is trying to come here for the funeral.
Police have now doubled the number of officers searching for the killers.
Speaking to a packed media conference, Gallagher pleaded for anyone with information about the shooting to come forward to police.
Police inquiry head Dave Pizzini said security camera footage of the incident showed Navtej was not resisting the robbers.
"He was complying with their threats and demands. There doesn't seem to be any reason at all for taking the action that they have. It's quite a cold, cowardly, callous act," Pizzini said.
