Distraught father says his son shot intruder 'in self defence'

Police guard the scene of the shooting in Penrose, Auckland today. Picture / Bradley Ambrose

A distraught gun dealer says his son acted in self defence when a machete wielding man burst into his Auckland gun shop today.

Ray Carvell said his son Greg, 33, a director of the Small Arms International gun shop in Great South Road, Penrose, had no choice when he loaded a handgun and shot the man in the stomach.

"He was told to stop. He kept coming at him and he was in fear of his life," Mr Carvell, the managing director of the company, said today.

"If we had had tennis rackets in there we might have hit him with a tennis racket," Mr Carvell said.

The drama began about 10am today when a man with a machete entered the gun shop. Police said they were still piecing together what then happened but confirmed they were only called after the man had been shot.

They said it was too soon to say if either Greg Carvell or the man with the machete would be charged.

The wounded man was operated on in Auckland Hospital within an hour of so of being shot and police said his life was not in danger.

However, Ray Carvell, a gun dealer for 40 years, said both he and Greg were in shock.

He said his son was protecting his own life and the lives of two or three other people in the shop.

Ray Carvell, who was not in the shop when the man burst in, said he had spoken to his son only briefly on the telephone after police refused to let him see him.

"His life was threatened. My son would not have shot anybody other than somebody who threatened his life."

He said he felt devastated when he heard the news of the shooting but said it was always a possibility with gun dealers.

Mr Carvell would not say if the gun his son used and the ammunition were stored separately.

"There is ammunition and there are guns of all sorts in there. We sell all sorts of guns. We are licensed dealers. We can keep anything together any time we want to.

"We test fire guns all day long," he said.

He said his son had grown up with guns and knew the difference "between play acting and when somebody was meaning to kill him.

"Like anyone in this country, he doesn't have to have his head bloody cut off before he does something about it."

He said the intruder may not have stopped with his son.

"We have a duty to the general public not to let people do this. We take our business seriously."

He said his shop had been ramraided earlier this year but the thieves got nothing because of the extraordinarily high security.

"We don't go round shooting people because we want to shoot people but we have got a right to defend ourselves and if that is what has happened, he has had a perfectly good right and I will stand by him thick and thin."

He said he was glad the man with the machete was not dead.

"But I am glad it is not my son that is laying on the floor with his guts hanging open," Mr Carvell said.

"I don't really give a bugger who he is (the man with the machete). All I care about is my son," said Mr Carvell as his voice quavered with emotion.

- NZPA