Alanah May Eriksen traces the events in Napier from daybreak until Molenaar shot himself
The day he died, Senior Constable Len Snee started work early, jogging past Jan Molenaar's house at dawn to conduct a final reconnaissance.
It was more than two weeks since a colleague had told the fit 53-year-old that he'd smelt cannabis as he walked past 41 Chaucer Rd while off duty.
Mr Snee's inquiries, including cycling past the address and smelling the odour himself, had given him enough information to obtain a search warrant.
As Molenaar was getting out of bed about 8am, leaving his partner Delwyn Keefe in bed sick, Mr Snee had arrived at the Taradale police station and was trying to organise other police officers to help him execute the warrant.
He arranged to meet Senior Constables Bruce Miller from the Ahuriri station, and dog handler Grant Diver, who is based at the Napier station, at the top of Chaucer Rd on Napier Terrace, just after 9am.
The three constables had carried out hundreds of search warrants together over the years without incident.
May 7 wasn't expected to be any different.
Molenaar, 51, left his home about the same time as the officers were gathering to walk his Staffordshire bull-terrier cross Ruger - named after a brand of rifle he owned which would later fatally wound Mr Snee - as he did most mornings.
He'd left his cellphone at home so when long-time friend Len Holmwood, who bought cannabis from him, sent him a text at 9.17am asking if he was "at hm m8", Keefe replied "yip".
Around the same time, Mr Snee drove his unmarked Holden Rodeo, in which Mr Miller was now a passenger, into Molenaar's driveway and Mr Diver parked his unmarked stationwagon further down the street, with his 5-year-old drug dog Five-O still inside.
None of the officers were wearing their required stab-resistant vests, two were not carrying their police batons and Mr Snee did not have his handcuffs or portable radio on him.
All three were carrying pepper spray.
There had been no formal briefing or planning over who would do what once they got to the house.
None of the officers had told the police communications centre, or senior police staff, of their intention to carry out the warrant.
They only became aware at 9.31am when Mr Miller raised the alarm, after he and Mr Diver had been critically injured and Mr Snee fatally shot.
Mr Snee had previously organised for five officers to execute the warrant but two were unable to make it.
Keefe answered the door when the three officers came knocking, just after Mr Holmwood had sent the text, and let them inside.
When they asked her if she had any drugs in the house, she immediately led them to a bedroom at the end of the hallway where cannabis was being cultivated. She then took them downstairs and showed them a box of cannabis she had moved down there before answering the door.
Mr Snee took Keefe back upstairs as his colleagues continued to search.
Then Mr Holmwood knocked on the door.
He sat in a dining area while Mr Snee continued to speak to Keefe, likely in his usual calm and collected manner.
MOLENAAR arrived home about 9.26am and, when he saw Mr Snee, immediately became aggressive. He disappeared down the hallway and retrieved a firearm, probably from the "grow room", and demanded everyone leave.
He had already told friends he thought he was under surveillance, becoming suspicious of a car hanging around the area, and had told them he would not go to prison but rather "go out in a blaze of glory" should police come to arrest him.
His paranoia was heightened when, on April 17, police came to his door saying they'd received reports that Keefe's gold Mitsubishi had been acting suspiciously in the Napier suburb of Knightsbridge. There had been burglaries in the area.
Molenaar told the officers the couple had been looking at real estate.
Molenaar threatened Mr Snee and the other two officers, who had come upstairs when they heard raised voices. They and Keefe tried to calm him down before deciding their efforts would be fruitless and filed out of the house, led by Mr Holmwood.
As they reached the roadside, the officers turned to look back at the house and saw Molenaar on his veranda armed with a .223 rifle with telescopic sights.
Without saying a word, he fired at least two shots at Mr Snee, one striking the right side of his neck and travelling down to exit his upper back, mortally wounding him.
As Mr Snee stumbled backwards, the other two officers turned to run up the hill to safety.
But Molenaar quickly turned the rifle towards them and fired at least two shots. One hit Mr Diver's right forearm, exiting through the other side, and another penetrated his groin, tracking through his stomach and lodging in his upper leg next to the femur.
Another hit Mr Miller in the lower back and tracked in a "fish-hook" direction. After damaging his spleen and bowel it looped up, destroying three ribs and lodging under his right arm.
It also damaged his colon, grazed his lung and damaged his diaphragm.
As the constables crawled up the hill bleeding profusely, Keefe, who had been crouching at the bottom of the stairs with her hands over her ears, ran inside yelling 'You shot a f***en cop'.
But Molenaar ignored her shouts, left the house and, at close range, fired another shot at Mr Snee, who was lying motionless behind his car. The bullet passed through his forearm.
He then turned his rifle towards the crawling officers. Mr Holmwood, who was standing on the road, grabbed the rifle and, while struggling with Molenaar, managed to turn the muzzle away from them.
But Molenaar, a former territorial soldier, was too strong for Mr Holmwood and threw him towards the ground before firing two shots at him.
The first hit the concrete between his legs and the second hit his left thigh, causing extensive fractures to his pelvis before fragmenting and exiting through two separate wounds, one out of his lower back and the other out of his buttock.
Molenaar then fired more shots towards the injured officers as they sought cover.
Mr Holmwood managed to crawl towards a "gurgling" Mr Snee and tried to pull him towards cover behind a concrete wall but did not have the strength to move him.
Mr Diver crawled into the driveway of 45 Chaucer Rd and was let into the house by the occupant, Sharon Hotton.
Mr Miller managed to crawl to 47 Chaucer Rd and seek refuge in the driveway, where he radioed police.
TWO RESIDENTS of nearby Guys Hill Rd, Christine Jackman and Donald Fraser, had heard gunshots and drove their respective cars to where the constable was lying.
By this time, Molenaar was in a elevated position behind a guest house at the back of his property.
Using a .308 SLR rifle, he fired three shots at Mr Miller and the civilians, two deflecting off a tree and one hitting the roof of Ms Jackman's Honda.
Six police officers soon arrived, with four of them, all armed, running towards Mr Miller.
Three armed offenders squad members ran past the group, towards Mr Snee, who was a colleague and close friend to each of them. One of the officers checked his vital signs and ascertained he was dead.
As one of the officers spoke to Keefe outside and another tried to enter Molenaar's backyard looking for Mr Diver, the gunman opened fire at the group from his kitchen window, a distance of about 4m. The 13 shots narrowly missed them.
Two other AOS members carried Mr Holmwood, who was lying close to Mr Snee's car, down the hill.
Meanwhile, the officers helping Mr Miller heard the gunshots and two dived on to the injured constable to prevent any more bullets striking him.
One of the officers reversed Ms Jackman's car into the driveway and Mr Miller was laid across the back seat and driven back up the hill.
The remaining officers provided cover for the two civilians as they ran up the hill.
Then three officers and a paramedic, carrying a stretcher, evacuated Mr Diver from Ms Hotton's house.
Police were now beginning to evacuate other residents.
Several members of the public started walking on to the street taking photographs and videos and were yelled at by police to go back inside.
Cordons were established on Chaucer Rd about 10.30am and media and members of the public, including those who lived on the street, unable to get into their homes, soon gathered.
Some residents were ordered by police to stay in their homes and did not surface until after Molenaar's death the next day.
Police were called in to help out from around the country. A command base was set up at the Territorial Force Army Base at the bottom of Chaucer Rd.
DURING the next 24 hours Molenaar would fire dozens more shots at police and neighbours.
The first two shots in retaliation, the only fired by police throughout the siege, were fired by an AOS member, identified as A9, at 12.30pm the first day.
He had seen the black barrel of a weapon, peeping from behind a door, in the direction of where other officers were standing. Neither of his shots hit Molenaar.
The first communication attempts by police with Molenaar began at 10.36am via a loudspeaker. He did not respond.
From midnight until 9.20am the next day, there were 300 calls to Molenaar's landline, only three not made by police.
It took 132 attempts by the Police Negotiation Team before he answered. He answered 23 of their 218 calls.
They first spoke to him at 10.33pm.
The police approach was to encourage him to surrender but he continuously said he was too old to go to prison and would not do so.
But it wasn't until Friday morning police negotiators were convinced he was preparing to commit suicide, because he started saying goodbye to friends and family. Police let Keefe speak to him on Friday and he told her wanted to see his brother, who had committed suicide.
At 1.21pm on Friday, soon after his last conversation with police, Molenaar sent a text to his brother saying "luv heaps".
Seven minutes later, police heard a low-calibre gunshot coming from Molenaar's home, the sound of his suicide.
