The Auckland Council for Civil Liberties has described the accidental shooting of an unarmed Hastings man by a police officer as inexcusable.
Iriheke Te Kanui Manu Pere, 33, remains in intensive care in Wellington Hospital in a serious condition after suffering a single gunshot wound to his upper right back.
Mr Pere was taken into custody on Friday night and police say he was lying on the ground when he was shot by a Bushmaster rifle which was slung over the shoulder of an arresting officer.
Auckland Council for Civil Liberties president Barry Wilson says the officer was a member of the Armed Offenders Squad.
He says if the training for the elite squad is of this quality, the shooting raises questions about the training of ordinary police.
"Where you have an individual who is totally compliant, not resisting police, and that individual is shot in the back, that raises real questions about the quality of the training of these police officers," he says.
Mr Wilson says if the gun's safety lock was not on it would be totally inexcusable.
"It's very hard to think of an excuse for this kind of shooting," he says.
The shooting is now the subject of investigations by the police and the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
