KEY POINTS:
A teenager killed in a hunting tragedy was laid to rest on the day he was to start his new career as an apprentice plumber.
Former Taradale High School pupil Aron Timms was killed instantly by a single gunshot to the chest after a member of his Tarawera hunting party mistook him for a deer last Saturday, the day before his 19th birthday.
The shooter was reportedly his girlfriend's father.
Speaking publicly for the first time after the death of his only son, Brian Timms said his wife and daughter were struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.
"We just basically shut down, we were so shocked. My wife is not coping and neither is my daughter. She's a dribbling mess at the moment.
"He was my mate. That day I lost two people. I lost my son but I lost my mate as well."
A talented shooter, Aron was the captain of a local club and had collected a vast array of trophies.
"He had a good eye," said Brian. "He won the East Coast juniors - everything he did he had to give it 100 per cent."
Aron was popular among his peers and work colleagues , with more than 450 people attending his funeral on Thursday.
Aron and his girlfriend Nicole Porter had known each other for almost three years and shared a great love of the outdoors, both families said in a joint statement yesterday.
"The loss of Aron has been a terrible tragedy that has devastated not only Aron's own family but the family of his girlfriend Nicole," the statement said.
The young couple had been on many hunting, duck shooting and fishing trips with both families.
Aron's death was the 11th accidental hunting shooting in seven years. Police are expected to decide whether to lay criminal charges after Easter.
The tragedy has renewed debate over whether people who kill a fellow hunter should face a manslaughter charge. Leading the campaign is Dave Comber, of the Taupo Deerstalkers Association.
"Aside from someone draping a deer skin around them, or displaying antlers and looking like a deer, there are very, very seldom, any mitigating factors, particularly when it's from within the same hunting party," he said last week.
Bay of Plenty coroner Dr Wallace Bain last year called for tougher laws to ensure hunters who shot others were more accountable. He made the call in his findings into the death of Taupo man William Stanley Gillies, killed by hunting companion Michael Bernard Lee in the Pureroa Forest in April 2005.
The Timms and Porter families are setting up a trust so students at Taradale High can experience the great outdoors that Aron loved so much.
Brian Timms told the Herald on Sunday that Aron died doing something he loved. "I was just lucky that when Aron met his girlfriend Nicole I inherited another daughter.
"He wasn't just my son he was also another family's son as well."
