Police have apologised to the whānau of a 16-year-old boy from Masterton who was arrested last year after being wrongly identified as a suspect who had robbed a gas station two days earlier.
Police said they had been looking for a young man with ethnic features. Peter Hing had just finished playing basketball with friends at Makoura College, when several police officers pushed him against the school fence and handcuffed him.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has ruled the officers failed to advise Peter he was no longer under arrest, and were wrong to leave the boy in handcuffs while they drove him home.
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui has the story.
