He was found and arrested a short time later, but not before local schools had been put into lockdown.
Haerewa appeared in the Napier District Court on Friday for sentencing on charges of aggravated burglary, dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, unlawfully using a motor vehicle, unlawfully possessing a firearm and two of assault with a weapon.
He was jailed for more than five years.
The “weapon” cited in the charges was the vehicle Haerewa had been driving on July 31, 2024, when he was involved with two other men in an early morning burglary in Hastings, and which he later drove at police officers in Havelock North.
The car had been stolen from Flaxmere three days earlier. It was worth between $35,000 and $40,000 and its registration plates had been removed to obscure its identity.
Haerewa and two other men, who have not been identified, used the car to go to the National Services Club in Hastings about 7.30am and parked it outside.
All three were masked and wearing gloves.
The club was closed to the public but tradies were working inside.
Haerewa waited outside the club while the two others smashed their way into the office with a large axe and a crowbar.
They smashed a safe off a shelving unit and took it outside with a filing cabinet containing club documents. Haerewa lifted the safe and the cabinet into the car and they drove off.
According to a Crown summary of facts filed in court, the safe contained approximately $50,000.
Two hours later, at about 9.30am, police spotted Haerewa driving the car in Hastings. By this time he was alone.
They activated red and blue flashing lights and pursued Haerewa for about 18 minutes, out of Hastings and into the neighbouring village of Havelock North.
Haerewa drove into Gardiner Place, Havelock North. It is a cul-de-sac and he became trapped there, with police vehicles blocking the only exit.
Haerewa did a U-turn and deliberately rammed one of the police vehicles, aiming at the driver’s door.
Another police car moved in behind to block him. Haerewa reversed into it.
Eventually, police managed to wedge Haerewa’s car into a driveway, with the stolen car and a patrol car directly alongside each other.
It was then that the police officers noticed Haerewa had a double-barrelled, sawn-off shotgun on his lap. The gun was later found to be loaded and 18 more shells were in the car.
Haerewa got out of his car carrying the shotgun and ran. He dropped the weapon on a lawn before jumping over a fence into another property.
He tried to hide in a woodshed but was found and arrested a short time later.
Judge Gordon Matenga said it was a “particularly aggravating” factor that Haerewa had a loaded firearm. His driving was also dangerous to the public.
“Rather than giving up [when boxed into the cul de sac] you decided to use your vehicle to ram the two police officers’ [cars],” Judge Matenga said.
He sent Haerewa, whose previous offending includes a sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl, to prison for five years and one month.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.
