Investigation underway after man shot dead during police stand-off in Hamilton. Video / Supplied
A former Waikato firearms officer who said police shooting victim Joel Buckley made the hairs raise on the back of her neck says she never got enough information to follow up her initial “gut instinct” concerns after meeting him at a firearm buy-back event.
Buckley was shot dead by police outside his Hamilton apartment after he fired at them with his AK47-style firearm. Police had wanted to speak to him about claims he owned illegal firearms and had been threatening his estranged wife’s new partner.
An Independent Police Conduct Authority report into his death found the fatal shooting was justified, but “significant” firearm licensing failures includedgiving back a seized weapon to the shooter and not acting on earlier concerning behaviour.
Two days before the July 14, 2021 shooting, Buckley’s estranged wife had gone to police about his threats of a mass shooting and his intention to die in an armed confrontation with police.
A coroner’s inquest began on Friday into the 42-year-old’s death with the evidence of former Waikato arms officer Louise Pareanga frequently referred to by witnesses.
On Friday, Detective Constable Brodie McQuilkin said he was so concerned by Buckleywhen he and his colleague visited him five months before the shooting that he videoed the interaction and sent it to Pareanga and two others to action.
Nothing was ever done.
Pareanga, who no longer works for police, explained how she worked at police buy-back events in 2021 as a safety handler.
The buy-back scheme, which collected newly prohibited military-style firearms, began in 2019 after the Christchurch mosque shootings that killed 51 people.
She had previously worked with Hato Hone St John, where she had been exposed to people with mental health problems and had a certificate in social work from 1998.
‘His outfit seemed very weird’
Pareanga said she met Buckley for the first time at a buy-back scheme in Te Kūiti in August 2019 where she saw a ute “arriving at a speed faster than one would expect at a police event”.
“The way the ute arrived at the front of the venue put everybody on high alert.
“When Joel Buckley stepped out of the ute I had a gut instinct, that he would be trouble. He raised the hairs on my neck.
“By this I mean, he would be very capable to harm a lot of people with a firearm,” adding that she expressed her concerns to a senior sergeant on duty that day.
“He didn’t say or do anything. It was just the way he looked and behaved.
“His outfit seemed very weird, he wore work boots with tracksuit pants and yellow sunglasses. He had a mohawk hairstyle.”
Pareanga also noticed Buckley’s partner step out of the ute and stand next to him.
“It came across that she was under his control and very demure.”
Joel Buckley was shot dead by police after he began firing at them with an AK47-style firearm outside his Hamilton apartment. Photo / NZ Police
Buckley handed in four parts of a firearm, including two magazines, a scope and a muzzle break.
Pareanga added that firearms staff did “as many checks as possible to ensure all links to an applicant is checked to make sure they are fit to be signed off”.
She also recalled being approached by Detective Constable Brodie McQuilkin about the “strange” visit to Buckley’s house in February 2021.
She told McQuilkin that she would revoke Buckley’s licence if she had evidence to support that he was not fit to hold a licence.
“I have left it with Detective McQuilkin and often reviewed the file to check if there was any progress for me to act on.
“The investigation didn’t go anywhere and had been filed as completed. Since Joel wasn’t prosecuted in this matter I therefore had no reason to suspend his licence.
“I had nothing to go [on] and therefore couldn’t act on revoking his license.”
Then on July 12, two days before the shooting, Buckley’s estranged wife arrived at the station.
Pareanga sat with her, and “she has been rambling about Joel” and was shown text messages and photos of the firearms he had.
Pareanga asked her some questions, along with a detective, about Buckley’s firearms and the threats he’d made. She then briefed her supervisor and began the process of suspending Buckley’s licence.
An aerial view of the scene on O'Donohue St outside Joel Buckley's apartment where he was shot dead by police in July 2021.
“This information escalated up the chain of command to form a plan around Joel and how to deal with the situation.
“I couldn’t do anything prior to this day since there wasn’t any evidence of Joel’s behaviour or actions ... [I] couldn’t progress with an investigation until I knew [estranged wife] was making a statement because without it we couldn’t proceed.”
Genevieve Haszard, counsel for Buckley’s estranged wife, asked if her observations at the buy-back were put into the police National Intelligence Application system, (NIA).
Pareanga said it was an amnesty event and any observations were to be “impartial”.
Coroner’s counsel Chris Gudsell put to her that although she had sat with Buckley on the day of that Te Kūiti buy-back event she hadn’t recorded anything about her interaction with him, and asked if that was because she had no concerns.
“Correct,” she replied.
He also queried her description of Buckley’s partner at the time as “under his control and very demure” being just based on her observation.
“Yes,” she said. “It was just an observation I made at the time.”
He said one of the criticisms of the firearm unit, by the IPCA, was the lack of actioning of staff concerns and asked whether she had followed up on her concerns about Buckley at the buy-back.
Pareanga said she told a senior sergeant and got the impression, by his “demeanour”, including “head nodding”, that he was going to look into it.
She admitted she never followed up with the officer about whether he did or not.
Gudsell then put to her that despite being alarmed by Buckley at the buy-back, she was willing to take his weaponry without question.
“So your gut feeling ... as you put it fairly dramatically that he could ‘harm a lot of people with a firearm’, you felt constrained by the amnesty not to do anything,” Gudsell asked.
“Correct,” she replied.
In re-examination from police Crown counsel Jacinda Hamilton, Pareanga confirmed that people were rewarded financially for returning weapons during the buy-back.
