A 57-year-old man faces threatening and firearms charges after an armed police hunt ended with his surrender in a Central Hawke's Bay paddock yesterday.
The man, a Central Hawke's Bay businessman, was in custody overnight and was expected to appear in the Hastings District Court today.
The drama started a short time before midday when police were told a man with a small gun had threatened a woman at a property south of Takapau.
It ended moments before 1pm when the man complied with requests from armed police and, hands on his head, sank to his knees in the grass and was taken into custody just west of the Ashcott Rd bridge over the Tukituki River.
At one stage police considered closing State Highway 2 at the northern end of the Takapau Plains.
A car driven by the alleged offender had been found parked beside the road, between the Waipukurau Golf Course and the highway's intersections with the Pukeora hill road and Ashcott Rd.
The man was believed to have two firearms, a BB Gun and a .22 rifle, and neither was understood to have been found in the vehicle, although it was unclear last night whether any had been recovered during the day.
Police from throughout Central Hawke's Bay were joined by officers from as far as Napier, including an armed offenders squad, and a specialist police negotiating team was sent to the area.
A State Highway 2 resident was at home and unaware of the events unfolding a short distance away when an officer arrived, concerned that she may be in the path of the man who was believed to have fled across the countryside.
She told her husband - who was not home at the time- that she had been offered the chance to be escorted to safety, but left and went to town "to do some chores for a couple of hours".
On the way to Waipukurau she saw the police gathering numbers, about 100m south of Pukeora Rd.
Police saw the man soon afterwards on the opposite side of the river and it was understood some contact was made with him by phone before officers moved in and made the arrest.
It was believed a woman associated with the man had made appeals for him to give himself up, and he was seen walking towards police with his hands on his head before being arrested.
Waipukurau-based Hawke's Bay Today reporter Nicki Harper witnessed the arrest, and said the man was in a paddock and appeared to be talking on a mobile phone.
"They (the police) yelled at him. He was standing in the paddock, they walked towards him, and he walked forward with his hands on his head, and then he knelt on the ground."
With the bridge access to Ashcott Rd closed to traffic for a short time, about three officers approached him, and the man was led to a police car and driven away.
The negotiating team leader, Detective Sergeant Mark Moorhouse, said that appeals were made to the man when he was confronted and he had complied with them.
The arrest was made before the negotiating team had needed to become involved.