Wendy Campbell-Rodgers (right) and her daughter Natanya Campbell were killed by Quinn Patterson in the Northland shooting.
Wendy Campbell-Rodgers (right) and her daughter Natanya Campbell were killed by Quinn Patterson in the Northland shooting.
The events leading to the fatal shooting of two Northland property managers were recorded on one of the women's phones, a coroner's report has revealed.
Thanks to that evidence, coroner Debra Bell was able to hear how the harrowing situation unfolded at Quinn Patterson's rental property in Whangarei Heads in 2017.
Wendy Campbell-Rodgers and her daughter Natanya Kelly Campbell were both shot several times by Patterson that day. His body was later discovered inside what was left of the home that burned to the ground after an armed standoff with police lasting several hours.
A coroner's report released this week has revealed police were able to piece together what happened that day thanks to an audio recording the women had made on Campbell-Rodgers' phone.
Campbell-Rodgers' experience of Patterson since becoming his property manager a month earlier was difficult from the outset. She found him verbally intimidating and had begun recording all their interactions on her phone.
Her 37-year-old daughter had done several inspections at his property before and didn't feel safe going there.
On July 26, 2017, the women went to do an inspection and maintenance contractor Jeffrey Pipe, who was going to install smoke alarms, was with them.
Pipe, who Patterson took exception to after a previous maintenance visit, waited downstairs while the two women approached Patterson's recently barricaded front porch.
Patterson was immediately incensed about Pipe's presence and demanded they all leave.
The phone recordings show words were exchanged before Patterson – unlicensed to own any firearm – went inside and came out brandishing a semi-automatic cut-down, Gevarm .22 calibre rifle.
He shot the younger of the Campbell women in the chest and upper body. The injuries were not immediately fatal and she yelled she could not breathe.
Her mother tried to help her to their vehicle as Patterson began chasing Pipe with the gun and shot him in the arm.
At the group's vehicles, the firearm jammed and Pipe was able to grab Patterson. The pair tussled with Pipe briefly disarming Patterson and managing get some control over him.
Patterson agreed to calm down if Pipe left. But as Pipe drove off Patterson recovered the firearm and fired five shots at the vehicle. One hit Pipe in the back but he managed to escape and call police.
Patterson returned to the two women, who were still at the front of the house and unleashed further rounds at them after Campbell- Rodgers yelled at him.
Other evidence showed Patterson then made three phone calls, leaving messages for his sister and his friend Michael John Hayes (a former soldier, and a licensed gun owner responsible for some of the eight firearms and gun pieces police later found scattered about Patterson's house).
Patterson also briefly spoke to his ex-partner in Australia.
Police at the Mt Tiger Rd property where Wendy Campbell-Rodgers and her daughter Natanya Campbell were killed by gunman Quinn Patterson in July 2017.
The Northland armed offenders squad arrived at the property about 11.40am and found Patterson inside the house with a fire lit in the fireplace.
Over the next four hours police tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with him and eventually threw tear gas into the house. Patterson responded by firing a rapid series of rounds. Two constables fired back. If Patterson was struck, it didn't stop him. He moved about the building as it suddenly went up in flames, authorities later saying it was likely he doused it in accelerant.
By 4.15pm the fire damage to the property was so extensive that firefighters and armed offenders squad members approached, believing there was no way he could have survived. They later found his badly burned body beside two firearms. He was still wearing the bulletproof vest.
Coroner Debra Bell said it was not possible to ascertain a direct cause of death but ruled it was by suicide.
Her report looked at the circumstances leading up to the incident, including Patterson's dealings with others and his access to guns, including whether Trade Me gun purchasing processes were robust enough and whether 2019 changes to the Arms Act would prevent access to the gun used by Patterson.
Several witnesses told the coroner that Patterson had commented to them how much he disliked the "property people".
Later in the month after he made those comments, a prospective tenant for a cottage on the same land decided not to move in after an encounter with Patterson, who told her of his dislike for Campbell-Rodgers and that the only way to deal with her was to shoot her in the head.
He said he would not move without a fight and would burn the house to the ground first.
The comments were not reported to police.
Armed police and the army were called in for the Mt Tiger double shooting.
Neither were those Patterson made to a masseuse he was regularly seeing but who ended their sessions because she felt unsafe.
Patterson told her numerous times he "hated the human race", that Campbell-Rodgers was making his life a misery and that he was at "breaking point". He said it would not take much for him to "lose it" and just wanted to be left alone, the masseuse said.
Several of Patterson's associates were aware he had firearms at his house, including large amounts of ammunition and plastic grenades. Nobody told police.
Neighbours heard automatic gunfire on July 23, 2017, some knowing those weapons required a special permit.
While it was unfortunate those people did not report the weapons, there was no duty on them to do so and they could not be held liable, the coroner said.
She noted Hayes' role in supplying Patterson with many of the weapons police later found at his house.
Hayes subsequently pleaded guilty to nine charges arising and was sentenced to 12 months home detention, with his gun licence revoked.
Hayes went to Patterson's house regularly to shoot firearms. Patterson and he would buy firearms on Trade Me using Hayes' firearms licence number.
Police with the vehicle contractor Jeff Pipe was in when he was shot by crazed gunman Quinn Patterson while on a property inspection. Pipe was shot in the arm and back.
On July 24 a local police officer and a neighbour heard gunfire coming from the direction of Patterson's property. The officer also had suspicions there had been an attempted theft of firearms from Patterson's house.
He checked the police database to see if anyone in the area held a licence for semi-automatic firearms, but nothing came up.
Despite information having been passed on to police, there was no mention of an earlier failed attempt by Patterson to import Airsoft gun parts and AK-47 magazines, which Customs thwarted when they realised he was not licensed for guns of any type.
Both these issues were part of a subsequent Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) inquiry, the findings of which the coroner accepted.
The IPCA said it was difficult for the officer who heard the gunfire to pinpoint where it was coming from and there was no particular reason to connect it to Patterson. The sound of gunfire was not unusual in the surrounding rural environment and it was legal to fire semi-automatic weapons with the correct licence and endorsements.
The Mt Tiger property where Wendy Campbell-Rodgers and her daughter Natanya Campbell were shot and killed in July 2017.
On 29 June 2017, police went to Patterson's property in response to a complaint from Campbell-Rodgers about a target shooting structure Patterson had built. Police inspected it the next day but were content with Paterson's explanation it was for his friend Hayes' use.
They said it was a tenancy issue for which Campbell-Rodgers subsequently served Patterson with a breach notice.
The IPCA said there was no suggestion Patterson had committed a criminal offence and no reason to investigate anything other than the target – even if police had known about Patterson's earlier importation effort.
Closing her report, Coroner Bell said she agreed with the IPCA's view that Patterson's importation efforts should have been recorded in the police database. However, she accept that information was unlikely to have altered police actions before the shootings.
She said she was also satisfied police had insufficient evidence to have investigated and removed firearms from Patterson beforehand.
"I do not consider that this outcome would be different if the import information was in the police database as there was no indication that Mr Patterson posed an imminent and significant threat," Coroner Bell said.
