A man fired a shot through a car window, narrowly missing the occupants and resulting in armed police being flown by helicopter into Southland, a court has heard.
Angus John Murray, 36, was sentenced to two years’ intensive supervision when he appeared in the Invercargill District Court last week, after pleading guilty to recklessly discharging an air rifle, unlawfully possessing an air rifle and breaching a protection order.
On August 31 last year, the defendant was at the Department of Conservation camp at Henry Creek between Te Anau and Milford Sound.
The police summary of facts said he was talking to himself and approached a camper-car with two tourists inside.
One occupant sat up and looked out the back window.
They believed Murray saw them before he walked back to his vehicle.
He then pulled up beside the camper-car and fired a shot from his .177 air-rifle into the back window.
"The rifle slug came within a metre of the tourists as they were lying down in their beds", the summary of facts said.
Murray then sped away.
A large police response, which included the armed offenders squad being helicoptered into Milford Sound, was deployed.
The defendant was arrested at a roadblock and the rifle and ammunition were found in his car.
He told police he did not recall being at the campsite and he had recently bought the gun because he was hunting wildlife to sustain a paleo diet.
He said he had used the firearm to shoot a duck in the Fiordland National Park.
Counsel Scott Williamson said his client had "engaged in a series of bizarre behaviour" since 2020,which brought him to police’s attention.
He said Murray was mentally ill at the time of the offending and had spent almost five months in custody.
The defendant was subject to a Community Treatment Order, which the court heard he would continue on.
Judge Thomas Ingram said a rehabilitative sentence was most appropriate.
"That is indeed the most useful option for you and for society at large", he said.
— Felicity Dear, NZ on Air court reporter
