A group of unruly teenagers who spent more than 40 hours on the roof of an Auckland youth justice facility were given fast food to end the stand off
Oranga Tamariki confirmed to Newshub the rooftop standoff has come to a conclusion and the teenagers came down late on Sunday evening.
The standoff involving five teenagers at the Korowai Manaaki Youth Justice Residence in Wiri started at about 1pm on Saturday. The group spent much of the weekend out in the wet and cold, on the roof of the facility.
Stuff reported the teenagers could be seen on the roof armed with pipes and bits of metal.
Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Tusha Penny told Newshub on Monday morning the five young people who remained on the roof, three of them came down at about 6:30pm on Sunday and the final two at around 10:30pm.
All five teenagers are safe, off-site and in police custody, Penny confirmed.
"This was an extremely complex, dangerous and challenging situation," Penny said.
"We would like to acknowledge the immense support from the emergency services and in particular police, who had a large team on site since Saturday afternoon."
Penny appeared on AM after the stand-off was confirmed to be over. She told the show the teenagers were given KFC and Mcdonald's to come down.
When asked if it was appropriate to give the teenagers fast food in the middle of a cost of living crisis, when some Kiwis can't afford takeaways, Penny said she didn't want to give them takeaways and had to be convinced.
"At the end of the day, they'd been there so long. I was saying, can we get them roast chicken and vegetables?
"We did give them takeaways, so they got KFC and McDonald's to come down, but like I said, we got them down safely after that period of time," she told AM.
Penny said the reason the teenagers came down was not because of the fast food they were given.
"Under legislation, we do have to feed them for a period of time. We didn't give them any food for the duration they were on there," she said.
"This is a dangerous and complex situation, we didn't want them up there any longer. They had make-shift weapons up there. We weren't prepared to put staff in near, the police weren't prepared to go to risk themselves as well. It was about de-escalation.
"There'll be a lot of comments on whether we had to feed them. They wanted it, we also gave them a phone call. We were just quite happy that after this long period of time, they came down safely."
Penny said they're relieved everyone is safe but are also "disappointed" it took so long to resolve.
"These young people were given multiple opportunities to make the right decision and to come down," Penny said. "These young people are here at Korowai Manaaki because they have committed serious crimes."
Penny confirmed the unruly teenagers caused significant damage to parts of the facilities and will be held criminally accountable.
"We are in the process of fully assessing the situation but we know they have damaged parts of the roof, ceiling cavities and security cameras.
"Working in a youth justice residence is challenging. I would like to acknowledge the kaimahi on the ground at Korowai Manaaki who went above and beyond, for many hours to help bring this issue to a safe resolution."
A large number of police officers had been in attendance across the weekend, including top negotiators and several firefighters.
Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Mike Bush told Newshub on Saturday, the standoff began after the unruly teenagers forced their way out of a unit and accessed a roof area in the facility.
It comes a week after five teenagers made it onto the roof at the Te Puna Wai o Tuhinapo youth justice facility near Christchurch.
One teenager came down but the remaining four stayed up for around 24 hours. It was later revealed fast food was used in the negotiations and the teens were given KFC after they surrendered.
A staff member suffered a fractured wrist and it's reported the offenders smashed their way into the roof cavity and hurled projectiles at people on the ground below.
The KFC reward didn't go down well with ACT Party leader David Seymour.
"These are Labour's values in action and they will doom a nation. It also shows why youth imprisonment should be done by Corrections instead of Oranga Tamariki," Seymour said.
Seymour said every day Kiwis who pay their taxes and follow the rules are terrorised by criminals in their workplaces, have their cars broken into and feel unsafe when they're out walking.
"But their money is used to reward people who don't follow the rules. At the heart of New Zealand's crime problem is the failure of values.
"Labour's priorities are reducing the prison population, removing three strikes, funding cultural reports for convicted crims pre-sentencing and now giving KFC to escapees. Everything but the rights of law-abiding New Zealanders."
