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A gun expert says it would have taken a "very unlucky" shot from an airgun allegedly involved in the shooting of Sergeant Don Wilkinson to kill him.
Auckland gun store owner Ron Young told the Weekend Herald the FX Monsoon air rifle police recovered from a Mangere house and suspected P laboratory was a "particularly accurate" weapon favoured by enthusiasts for its ease of use.
Police have not confirmed whether the FX Monsoon was the weapon that killed Mr Wilkinson early on Thursday morning or if they are looking for another firearm.
But Mr Young said it was doubtful the FX Monsoon was powerful enough to cause Mr Wilkinson's fatal wounds.
The Swedish-made pre-charged pneumatic fires a .22 calibre lead pellet weighing about 15g with an accuracy range of about 50m.
Its cylinder is charged either from an aqualung or hand pump. The semiautomatic weapon can fire 12 shots.
"It is quite powerful but it's nothing like a firearm and for it to be lethal in this case he would literally have to be standing over him and fire a shot into his chest.
"It would have to be a very, very unlucky shot to actually get through his ribs without the pellet dispersing because it's only soft lead."
Mr Young said the FX Monsoon delivers about 28ft/lbs of muzzle energy _ the energy of a projectile at the moment it exits the muzzle of a gun.
But this was minuscule compared with a .22 gun which measures "in the hundreds" or a .303 firearm "in the thousands".
Mr Young was worried that more powerful airguns, such as .45 calibre rifles which could kill a moose, were available on the internet.
A clause in the firearms act for "especially dangerous firearms" did not clearly classify what they were.
He knew of instances where people had ordered potentially lethal .50 calibre rifles, known as "Dragonslayers".
"They're not sold in retail shops in New Zealand because we all have come to the same conclusion, and that is what use is there for these things here? These things are dangerous."
