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An armed man wanted to know if he was in the same gun store where a machete-wielding intruder was shot a year ago - and then asked the owner to kill him.
Gunshop owner Ray Carvell and staff member Bruce Motley were confronted by the man in the Penrose store Small Arms International just before 11.30am yesterday.
The man pulled out a large knife but made no demands for guns or money.
He "stood there like he was a zombie" and did not attempt to climb over the counter, said Mr Carvell.
"We had distance between us and he couldn't get to us."
The man, aged in his 30s, asked if he was in the store where another man was shot last year.
Mr Carvell said he asked the man why he wanted to know, and the man said he wanted to be killed.
"He wanted us to shoot him and we had no intention of shooting him because he gave us no reason to."
Mr Carvell, aged in his early 70s, said he would have used force, including a firearm, against the man if he had needed to defend himself.
He and Mr Motley armed themselves with collapsible batons similar to police ones, from the shop stock and extended them their full length.
"I said, 'You had better put that knife f***ing down, mate'," Mr Carvell said. "I said, 'If you come anywhere near me I am going to break your bones ... You won't die but you'll get bones broken'.
"As far as I'm concerned I could handle it. I didn't want to but if I had to I could have handled it."
Almost a year ago, Mr Carvell's son Greg shot an armed man in the stomach when the intruder came at him wielding a machete in the family-owned store.
Greg Carvell was charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm but the prosecution was dismissed last month. Greg Carvell was not at the shop during yesterday's incident but arrived later, telling the media: "It's probably not as exciting as you wanted it to be, to come down here and see if I'd shot someone again."
The man he shot, Ricky Beckham, admitted aggravated burglary and was jailed for two years and nine months.
Beckham later told police he wanted a gun to commit suicide.
Ray Carvell said he never felt his life was under threat from the man who walked into his shop yesterday.
"He wanted us to shoot him, kill him. I said, 'That's not the way it's going to work'. I told him he wasn't going to get his wish."
Mr Carvell said he and Mr Motley spent several minutes talking to the man.
"We said, 'We'll get you some help'. He said, 'It's too late'."
Mr Carvell said the man produced a large steel-bladed knife, about 25cm long, from beneath his coat.
A customer who was about to enter the shop was warned by Mr Carvell to stay out. The customer phoned police and Mr Carvell also rang 111.
"I said, 'This is going to be really bad for you', and told him to put the knife down and sit on the floor."
But when police arrived, the man "took on a stance" and held on to the knife. A policeman kept a Glock pistol trained on him while another officer tried to pepperspray him.
The spray was ineffective and the man was shot with a Taser stun gun, falling to the ground and "thrashing on the floor", said Mr Carvell.
Detective Inspector Bernie Hollewand said the shop staff showed restraint in their dealings with the armed man. "They didn't resort immediately to lethal force."
He said the intruder had been responsive after the Taser shot but would still be checked by a doctor.
The man is due to appear in the Auckland District Court today charged with two counts of assault with a weapon and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.
Police will ask for him to be remanded in custody for a psychiatric assessment.
Mr Carvell said the family were not put off the gun business and reopened after police finished taking statements and photographing the scene.
He said security had been upgraded after last year's shooting and there was an option of making customers enter the shop through a security gate.
"How do you protect yourself from that sort of person? You can't. But you can't live in fear of them either."
- additional reporting: NZPA
