Napier shooting: Armoured vehicles called in to help

An armed officer moves into position near the house from which the gunman was firing. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Light-armoured vehicles were last night called in from Waiouru Army base to help police in the armed stand-off outside the Napier gunman's house.

They were seen in the Chaucer Rd area about 11.30pm.

Police spokeswoman Kris McGehan confirmed the LAVs had been requested, but refused to say what they would be used for or how many had been called in.

Yesterday morning's police raid was supposed to be a routine cannabis bust.

Three experienced police officers went to the two-storey home on Chaucer Rd South, a steep street opposite the city's botanical gardens.

The officers were believed to be unarmed, as is usual for low-key busts.

But they were met by a gunman who fired a volley of rifle shots that hit four people, killing former armed offenders squad member Senior Constable Len Snee, 53.

The gunman also critically injured Constable Bruce Miller, Constable Grant Diver and a civilian.

Mr Diver, a police dog-section officer, crawled to a neighbouring property where he was rescued by armed offenders squad members.

Police were unable to confirm for most of yesterday morning that an officer was dead, saying only that one was "unaccounted for".

But reports that an officer was dead filtered out within half an hour of the shooting, at 9.30am.

The body lay outside the house, next to a police car, with officers being fired on each time they tried to retrieve it.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said he was on his deck about 80m from the scene, which was down the steep gully from his home, when he heard the first round of three or four gunshots.

"It sounded like an elephant gun to me, it was really loud."

After about five minutes, he heard another series of shots.

Police quickly set up barriers, blocking off hundreds of homes.

Then they began phoning residents warning them to stay inside with their doors locked, as ambulances arrived to take the injured to hospital.

The resident, among several spoken to by Armoured vehicles called to help police deal with stand-off

the Herald, said police maintained phone contact with him throughout the day, reminding him to stay inside.

Local schools and the nearby Crown pub were also told to keep everyone inside. Within an hour of the first shots, helicopters were above the city, believed to be bringing in the police special tactics group - officers who specialise in reacting to armed incidents - from Wellington.

By 11am, police knew the gunman was contained in the Chaucer Rd home, and had been told by one of his associates that he had a lot of ammunition and, possibly, explosives.

A woman, believed to be his girlfriend, was taken from the home.

A Kipling Ave resident, who asked not to be named, said he took police at the barrier on his street fruit juice and coffee soon after hearing gunshots around 12.10 and 12.30pm.

At 2pm, police confirmed the death of Mr Snee and the injuries to the other officers and the unnamed civilian.

Meanwhile, police were negotiating with the gunman through a loudhailer.

At 3.35pm, a Herald reporter standing at a police barricade about 500m from the scene heard about 10 shots. People in the area ducked for cover behind cars.

Pupils who had been kept in their schools were safely evacuated by early evening.

At a 5.30pm press conference in Christchurch, Police Commissioner Howard Broad paid tribute to Mr Snee as a highly valued officer.

Mr Broad also praised his staff for their bravery, saying some had been fired on while trying to get to the body.

In Napier, a Civil Defence welfare centre was set up at Napier Intermediate School, where about 40 residents barred from their cordoned-off homes were being sheltered and fed. Offers of accommodation had been made last night, motel beds were being arranged, and some displaced residents were staying with friends or family.

Police said all the shots heard had been fired by the gunman.

Once night fell, the scene was eerily quiet as officers in fluorescent vests stood beside patrol cars, directing traffic at the blocked-off intersection of Carlyle and Faraday Sts.

About 7.15pm, four patrol cars took armed offenders squad members close to the gunman's house. But half an hour later the cars came back down the hill, to be replaced by two truckloads of special tactics group officers in black overalls.

Late last night the waiting game continued.

- additional reporting: Rachel Tiffen and Alanah May Eriksen