A 14-year-old has been arrested after a person was seriously injured in a stabbing during a robbery at a Christchurch dairy this morning.
Officers were called to a report of robbery and assault carried out by three people at a business on Opawa Rd shortly before 7am.
“During the incident, the store owner was stabbed, causing serious injuries to him,” Christchurch District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill said.
The trio fled the scene in a vehicle – a silver Toyota MarkX – taking a till and “other items” with them.
“We would like anyone who may have seen this vehicle in the Opawa or surrounding areas to please contact police immediately.”
Hill said a teenage boy was arrested at an address in Woolston about 3.45pm today.
The boy is expected to appear in the Christchurch Youth Court tomorrow on serious charges.
“This morning’s attack on an innocent person is shocking, but I hope this arrest brings some comfort to our community.
“We know other people were involved in this incident and we need to hear from people in the community if they have information that could help us locate the offenders.”
It followed at least four reported aggravated robbery incidents across Christchurch on Sunday, with three of those committed within the span of an hour.
Earlier, Hill told TVNZ’s Breakfast there had been an “increase in this offending” recently.
“We are concerned about it and we want to get on top of it as quickly as we can,” he said.
“I can say that our team did a fantastic job on Sunday and quickly apprehended the offenders for the three aggravated robberies in the morning.”
Hill said some of the offenders were just 13 years of age.
“It’s a concerning age, and while youth offending is not new, we are alarmed that they seem to be getting younger and younger.”
Asked what could be driving the activity, he said international trends, and social media, can play a role.
“The age-old showing off to mates is a factor in this, but we’re very keen to get in front of this as quickly as we can.”
He said youth offending was “not unique to Christchurch”.
“We are doing a lot and really joined up across our Government organisations, we have good support in terms of non-government agencies that support us,” he said.
“It’s a complex scenario and we just encourage people to do their part. There’s a part for community, and there’s a part for families as well. But we’ll continue to do our part.”
