The mother of Shargin Stephens’ partner has told his inquest he wasn’t the violent drug-user portrayed in the media after he was fatally shot by police.
Josephine Green said Stephens was smart and generous, and took good care of her daughter Estelle and their home in Rotorua.
Green said Stephens’ death in July 2016 - after he was shot twice by police on Te Ngae Rd - cast a long shadow over their lives and they had struggled to recover.
“We’re angry about the way they portrayed him in the media as a drugged-up, violent person. It was not the Shargs we knew and loved.”
At one point, the 35-year-old orchard pruner texted a friend at 2am to say: “F*** this bro, they won’t let me sleep”.
Shargin Stephens was fatally shot by police after he attacked an empty police car on July 14, 2016. He died 12 days later in hospital.
Sister Venus Stephens said her little brother was mentally resilient but the bail checks, eventually deemed by the Independent Police Conduct Authority as oppressive, amounted to harassment.
“The bail checks would have broken most people in my view. He was harassed and the evidence of that is that he smashed up that cop car and tried to get away.”
The officer who had been driving the car called in a 10-10 coded emergency and Stephens was chased from Vaughan Rd through a mechanics workshop on Marino Rd to Te Ngae Rd.
By that point he had been tasered twice, including once in the face, and pepper-sprayed ,and although limping and dragging the slasher, he was not incapacitated.
Within minutes he was shot twice by a probationary police officer with an M4 Bushmaster rifle, after police said he took two steps toward the officer with the slasher raised.
Green said Stephens was kind, hardworking and never violent and accused the police of “brutally murdering” him.
Her partner Jim Te Papa said their whānau was “hammered” on social media after Stephens was shot and they were devastated and desperate to correct the narrative.
Earlier in the week the inquest heard it was unlikely methamphetamine Stephens smoked the night before contributed to his behaviour that day.
Venus Stephens said the portrayal of her brother as a meth-addict, which he was not, was damaging and at a time when they were at their brother’s hospital bedside.
He had 11 surgeries for extensive abdominal injuries that required numerous blood transfusions, she said.
“He opened his eyes. Shargin looked at me. He was begging me to help him. He was so scared and confused and in pain.
“I was standing there crying. After that I never saw my brother awake again.”
His life support was turned off on July 26.
She spoke extensively about her brother’s childhood and formative years which were marred by tragedies, and said while he wasn’t blameless - having already served time in jail - he was focused on the good in his life.
One of six siblings, three of whom were now dead, Stephens was gentle and had an affinity to nature from a young age, enjoying gardening, hunting and fishing.
Te Papa said he saw Stephens on the morning of the shooting and he appeared his normal self with “nothing out of the ordinary” to note.
He and friend Matthew Gardiner described Stephens as usually being calm, composed and placid with a good sense of humour.
Gardiner said Stephens, who had a history of convictions and was on electronically monitored bail, was in the process of getting a WINZ grant to start a business.
He had been renovating his grandmother’s house with Estelle and intent on building a life.
Earlier in the day the court heard from video surveillance expert David Horsburgh who said taser camera footage of the incident was vital in proving police eyewitness accounts incorrect.
The inquest heard police are currently rolling out new tasers that no longer have cameras, and police remain undecided over whether to implement body cameras.
The hearing ended today and Coroner Robb will now consider all the evidence before issuing a final finding.
