Gunman's body removed from siege house

Molenaar's body was found in the main bedroom of his house on Saturday, after a 50 hour siege. Photo / Alan Gibson

Napier gunman Jan Molenaar's body has been removed from the house where he was holed-up until his death.

The body, which was removed this afternoon, will be taken to Wellington for a post mortem examination to be conducted tomorrow.

Earlier today, it was revealed he ran down the road outside his house firing at two policemen he had already wounded as they dragged themselves to cover at the start of the siege on Thursday.

Molenaar, 51, fatally shot Senior Constable Len Snee and wounded Senior Constables Bruce Miller and Grant Diver, and civilian Leonard Holmwood on Thursday.

Mr Snee's funeral will be held at the Napier Municipal Theatre at 1pm on Wednesday.

At a media conference this morning, Superintendent Rod Drew described
what he termed "a very frightening and dangerous situation involving murderous intent".

Mr Drew praised Mr Holmwood, ambulance officers, neighbours and passers-by who tried to help the badly injured policemen.

Molenaar ran down the road and shot at Mr Miller and Mr Diver as they dragged themselves up the road to find cover.

Mr Holmwood grappled with the gunman to try to stop him firing at them again and may have saved their lives as a result, Mr Drew said.

Mr Holmwood was shot in the left thigh and had to drag himself to safety behind a wall until he could be rescued by AOS members.

Constable Diver dragged himself to a house where he rang for help and Mr Miller managed to reach an adjoining driveway out of sight of the gunman.

Molenaar wounded

Mr Drew told reporters that a police marksman fired two shots at Molenaar at about 12.20pm on Thursday, only a few hours after his fusillade of shots.

A volley of shots was fired at Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) members in a house nearby and when Molenaar pointed his semi-automatic rifle from a partly opened door leading on to the deck of his house, an officer fired two shots.

Molenaar "retracted" and there was a temporary lull in firing, said Mr Drew.

The following day he told a friend by phone that he had been wounded but gave no details.

Mr Drew said the officer's action had been fully investigated and fully complied with the law relating to self-defence and the defence of others. The shots had been fully justified, he said.

Last contact Friday afternoon

The last contact Molenaar had with the outside world was about 1pm on Friday, with a single gunshot heard from the address shortly afterwards.

Mr Drew said there was no contact from Molenaar from then onwards.

He said Molenaar spoke to his partner Delwyn Keefe at 1.05pm on Friday, telling her he had "had enough" and did not intend to go to jail.

At 1.23pm he sent a text to a family member saying that he loved him and at 1.28 there was a single shot heard from the address.

Mr Drew would still not reveal how Molenaar died, saying it should not be concluded he took his own life.

'Military-style arsenal'

Mr Drew also revealed that there were 18 firearms at Molenaar's Chaucer Road address including nine in the room where Molenaar was found dead.

He described the arsenal as a large array of military-style weapons.

The house's booby-traps ranged from nails through to sticks, barbed wire, electric currents on doors and explosive devices.

Cannabis plants were found in a room in the house set up to grow the drug and bags of cannabis, along with a sawn-off shotgun, were in the garage downstairs.

Mr Drew said Molenaar's body remained in the house where it was found on Saturday morning. It would be removed this afternoon.

The cordon around nearby properties in Chaucer Road, on Napier's Hospital Hill, would also be eased.

Slow recovery

Mr Drew said two of the three bullets that hit Senior Constable Snee were not survivable.

Senior Constable Snee was hit in an arm, the upper torso and the lower torso, police said.

Either shot to the torso would have proved fatal, and death would have been instantaneous, Mr Drew said.

Fragments of a .223 calibre bullet had been found in his body.

Senior Constables Miller and Diver and Mr Holmwood were said to be improving very slowly from their injuries.

Mr Millar and Mr Holmwood are still in the intensive care unit of Hawke's Bay Hospital, in drug-induced comas.

Gunman 'like anybody else'

Meanwhile, Peter Molenaar, said his brother Jan was a normal person who snapped when he found police officers in his home.

Peter Molenaar told Radio New Zealand he believed police would have been wiser to wait for his brother to return from his morning walk on Thursday before attempting to search the Chaucer Rd property for drugs.

"Anyone would know Jan...if anyone was wandering in his house, that was enough to set him off," he said.

"If he had have been there and talked to them himself it would have been better. But his partner let them in the house, so he didn't know the situation.

"He's come home and seen them in the house and just snapped. That's just triggered him off."

Peter Molenaar said his brother would normally calm down after an outburst but having shot three police officers and his neighbour, "there was no turning back after that. I think he knew that".

Rumours Molenaar, 51, had been a Rambo-type figure, on steroids, or a P-user, were false, he said.

"He was just like anyone else, he was just getting on with his life and it was just disrupted that day."

He also denied claims that people knew about the weapons cache stored at the house.

Key praises police

Prime Minister John Key today praised police's handling of the situation.

Speaking on Radio Live, Mr Key said stories of heroism were yet to be told.

"There were some really heroic acts. I understand police officers actually threw themselves [to] cover the bodies of the two injured police officers, I don't know all the stories yet. It's a terrible situation but I think there are going to be some great stories of heroism."

Mr Key said he hoped to attend Mr Snee's funeral on Wednesday.

"I am going to do my best to get there I would like to," he told Newstalk ZB this morning.

Mr Key said police had dealt with the tense situation well.

"I think they did a very, very good job it was an extremely difficult circumstance," he said.

After the killing and woundings police still had to deal with the "unknown quantity" Molenaar presented.

"No one really knew if the house was booby-trapped, what weapons he had, they just knew that he was unstable, dangerous and had killed," Mr Key said.

Mr Key said the case had raised concerns about the number of unregistered weapons in New Zealand but emphasised the case was not a common occurrence.

"This is one that has gone tragically and terribly wrong and I guess we will go away and take stock of that."

He understood the calls that police should carry arms, but said while that may have been useful in this situation often it was counter productive.

Overseas research had shown police weapons overseas were turned against officers and having armed police made the force unapproachable.

"There are a lot of risks with arming the police...my preference would be not to arm police."

Civil Defence Minister John Carter today said civil defence volunteers in the city, led by Napier City Council civil defence manager Angela Reade had done a good job.

"Civil defence volunteers worked in shifts to man the welfare centre, which registered more than 300 people forced from their homes by the incident. More than 100 were given alternative accommodated each night," he said in a statement.

"This operation could have stretched over several more days. Other civil defence groups in the region were ready to give assistance if they were needed. It was a good response."

He praised police and emergency services.

Mr Carter said Mayor Barbara Arnott's home was in a street affected by the stand off.

"She experienced the tension first-hand and, like many other people, was forced from her home."

- With NZPA