Police were forced to pepper spray a group of gang members in Whangarei over the weekend, after an officer was assaulted.
At 9:45am on Saturday morning, police were called to a family harm incident in Otangarei.
While police were attending the call-out where a man had been stabbed, a group of people that included gang members turned up at the scene.
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A member of the group assaulted a police officer from behind. The officer did not sustain any injuries, but a police vehicle was "significantly damaged", according to a statement from Inspector Wayne Ewers.
"Due to the aggressive and violent behaviour of those individuals, police officers pepper-sprayed a number of those involved," said Inspector Ewers.
A 23-year-old man has been arrested in relation to the damage to the police car, and will appear in court on related charges on Monday.
"Our police officers come to work every day to keep our communities safe," said Inspector Ewers.
"It is unacceptable and alarming when someone tries to harm one of our staff, fortunately they were not injured in this incident, but it could have been a lot worse.
"We are treating this seriously and we will do everything we can to find whoever is responsible and hold them to account."
Newshub.
