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Four Auckland high school students clearing rubbish from a field were shot at with an air rifle yesterday.
The police Eagle helicopter hovered overhead and the armed offenders squad was called but was stood down after armed police went in to arrest a man at a Haverstock Rd house.
The property backs on to Mt Albert Grammar School's sports fields about 2.30pm.
Police arrested the 45-year-old, who has gang connections, without incident. He will appear in the Auckland District Court today on a range of serious firearms charges.
One student, 15, who asked not to be named, told the Weekend Herald he and another student were on detention clearing rubbish when "whizzing bullets" flew past him, just centimetres from his stomach.
"We went down to the bridge looking at ducks and picking up rubbish and he just started shooting at us for no reason," the boy said.
"We looked around and saw him and then ran."
He said the man was "big", had tattoos over his face and was firing a long rifle.
"He did look scary. He was sitting at the table on his property."
The students moved to a different section of the school and continued picking up rubbish when, minutes later, two other students told them they too had been shot at. The boy said that after staff members were taken to the scene, the armed man yelled out to the boy: "Are you spying on us?"
They were about 50m away from him at the time.
"It was quite freaky but I'm all right."
The boy's father said he was pleased the man had been caught.
However he was "very concerned" about what would happen when the man was released from custody.
"What happens if he takes a pot shot and misses and some poor innocent little baby in a pram or a little girl down the road or whatever, cops a bullet in the eye from this idiot?
"Then what will happen to him?"
