Night of death and mutilation

James Te Aute was a man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 25-year-old left his partner, Julie Cropley, watching their three sleeping children and went to the supermarket with his cousin and a friend.

He was never to see them again.

Early yesterday he was shot and killed - one of several victims in an episode of horrific crime that started in the evening on the Hauraki Plains and ended with a hostage drama almost 12 hours later in an eastern Auckland suburb.

Late yesterday Antonie Ronnie Dixon was charged with Mr Te Aute's murder.

Dixon, 34, wore a standard-issue blue boiler suit as he stood in the dock.

He was also charged with shooting at police, kidnapping and aggravated burglary.

He has been remanded in custody until next week so that a psychiatric report can be prepared.

The night of violence began in the tiny Hauraki Plains village of Pipiroa, mostly known to State Highway 2 travellers for its humped bridge and the Pipiroa Country Kitchen.

Just before 7.30pm, St John Ambulance was called to a converted workshop on Buchanan Rd to tend to a man who had fallen off a roof. Inside they found a very different scenario.

Two women, Simonne Butler and Renee Hills, lay in pools of blood. They had been attacked with a Samurai sword and suffered horrific injuries.

It is understood Ms Hills' right hand was severed before her arrival at Middlemore Hospital, and a six-hour operation to reattach it failed.

Her surgery took about 14 hours and she was later said to be in a stable condition in the intensive care unit.

Last night hospital staff said Ms Butler's surgery was still in progress, although it was expected to be completed about 9.30pm.

Her left hand was successfully re-attached, but her right hand was cut almost through, leaving her thumb, index and middle fingers hanging by a 1cm-wide piece of skin.

As armed police descended on Pipiroa to hunt for the man they believed was responsible for the attack, 120km away in Highland Park, East Auckland, Mr Te Aute was being gunned down in a carpark.

He had been sitting with friends in a Ford Telstar registered to Ms Cropley when a man pulled up in a car.

Police believe there was an exchange between the men, although it was when Mr Te Aute and his friends got out of the car that the shooting happened.

Mr Te Aute was hit, but his companions were not. He died soon after arriving at Middlemore.

Detective Inspector Steve Rutherford said there was no known link between the three men and the killer.

A customer at the nearby service station saw the shooting and called police. The witness followed the gunman for a short distance, giving officers the car's registration number.

The gunman headed along the streets of Pakuranga towards Howick for some time before realising he was being chased.

As the pursuit reached Howick, police say, the man turned the gun on them and fired several shots.

"Fortunately none of the shots hit and injured any members of the police or members of the public," Mr Rutherford said.

The patrol unit backed off, and about 1am Auckland's armed offenders squad followed the man to a rural road in East Tamaki where the gunman tried to get into one home and failed.

He fled next door, allegedly forcing his way inside, where a middle-aged man and woman lived.

Police have revealed only that the pair allegedly held hostage were "extremely brave".

Specialist police negotiators began talking to the man. During tense negotiations the woman, unhurt, managed to escape.

The man was released about 6am and the gunman put down his weapon and surrendered soon afterwards.

"Sanity prevailed finally at daybreak," Mr Rutherford said.

The couple were uninjured, he said, but would be distraught when they realised the enormity of what they had been involved in.

They were "extremely brave and most grateful to have come through this ordeal, which is everyone's nightmare, reasonably okay at this stage".

"I have got no doubt that as the day goes on and they realise the full picture, they will be devastated."

The couple declined to speak to the Herald last night.

In court yesterday Dixon's lawyer, Peter Kaye, told the court his client should be remanded because of material the police had and the instructions he had received from Dixon.

Dixon has not yet been charged over the sword attack on the two women at Pipiroa but is likely to be today or tomorrow.

Police spokeswoman Angeline Barlow said details from that attack were still being pieced together, and police hoped to talked to the two women before charging Dixon.

The Herald understands that Ms Butler is Dixon's former partner.

Until about a year ago, the couple lived together in a home owned by Ms Butler in the Manukau City coastal town of Beachlands.

The new tenants said she was at the house on Tuesday signing their lease and was "a lovely, chatty woman, a good person".

Ms Butler's former employer said she was a good worker and they were sad to see her leave the shipping firm more than a year ago.

They understood she had been having relationship problems and that she was moving away from Auckland to make a fresh start.

Her former employer said little was known about Ms Butler's partner except that he was involved in martial arts.

Neighbours of the Beachlands home the couple once shared also said Dixon was well known in the area. He had an interest in cars and was often spotted practising martial arts moves on the front lawn.

Mr Te Aute's mother, Lee, and sister Kim are flying from their home in Sydney this morning.

Yesterday, the slain man's family gathered at the tidy rented brick home in Mangere where he lived with Ms Cropley and their son, aged 8, daughter, 5, and baby.

Neighbours said his family had warned them during the day that the quiet cul-de-sac would soon fill with vehicles of people paying their respects.

His father, John Te Aute, spent the day with his only son's body and plans to return with him to Te Paamu Marae in Te Puke for his tangi.

An aunt told the Herald that James Te Aute, who moved to Mangere after his parents' relationship broke up when he was about 10, lived for his children.

He was a "wayward but good boy and a great father".

"He was a good boy, but a lot of good boys get into a little bit of trouble," she said. "He loved rugby and his family, but he did mix in with the wrong crowd."

The aunt said Mr Te Aute had attended college in Mangere but had not worked since he left.

She said he was close to his father and Kim, his older sister.

"She is devastated; he was her only brother. It was just the two of them and they were very close."

Family at his house yesterday said that Mr Te Aute, his cousin and a friend had driven Ms Cropley's Ford Telstar to Pakuranga for food and petrol.

In the car park they met a man they didn't know.

"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

* In today's reports the injuries and details of surgery on the two victims Renee Hills and Simonne Butler were transposed. The lengthy surgery was completed on Ms Butler, not Ms Hills. This report has been changed to reflect this correction.

Diagram showing how hand is saved by surgeons