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A man who narrowly missed being shot in the heart is “absolutely p***** off” the gunman, who has gang links, is eligible for parole.
Poull Andersen - brother of popular radio host Jay-Jay Feeney - believes the justice system is “bulls***” and favours criminals over victims.
Andersen, 35, was recently notified that the gunman who nearly killed him will appear before the parole board in the week beginning July 22.
Poull Andersen was shot by a gunman in 2022. He is angry the gunman is eligible for parole. Photo / Michael Craig
“It’s also annoying the public doesn’t know who he is because his name is suppressed. I believe the justice system favours criminals over victims,” Andersen said.
Jay-Jay Feeney said her brother has become a completely different person since the shooting, and not “lively” like he used to be.
Jay-Jay Feeney and her brother Poull Andersen, who was shot by a gunman in 2022.
“Three innocent people have been maimed. PoulI is scared and paranoid about everything. He is angry, that comes from losing his business, he can’t work for anyone else because he hasn’t got the energy or strength to last a day.
“The gunman is in prison for other crimes, but I believe he has served hardly any time for Poull’s shooting, it’s a joke,” Feeney said.
Andersen, a mechanic who has two sons aged 10 and 11, was ordering chicken and chips at his favourite kebab shop on Fort St, downtown Auckland in March 2022 when he and two women were shot.
Poull Andersen had 22 steel pellets surgically removed from his upper torso and face after he was shot in downtown Auckland in 2022.
The prosecution’s case against the gunman said the then-18-year-old was with several associates and “became involved in an altercation” with another group that included Andersen. Andersen said there was no altercation.
The teen then left for a nearby parking garage and returned with what appeared to be a homemade “pipe shotgun” loaded with pellets from a 12-gauge shotgun shell and fired it.
Pellets punctured Andersen’s lungs, and one narrowly missed his heart. Doctors left around 24 pellets in his body because they were too difficult to remove.
Poull Andersen was shot by a gunman on Fort St, downtown Auckland, in the early hours of Saturday, March 5, 2022. Pellets punctured his lungs and one narrowly missed his heart.
He has a long scar on his stomach and feared being blinded and paralysed.
“They had to cut bullets out of my arteries, intestines and stomach. A bullet missed my eye and there is one lodged on the outside of my heart”.
Poull Andersen was shot by a gunman in Fort St, Auckland in 2022. He feared being blinded and paralysed, and has a long scar on his stomach. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“It felt like I was hit by a car, there is this intense hot energy that goes through you. I was coughing up blood, I couldn’t move, and I could feel my insides burning. I fought to stay awake, my girlfriend kept talking to me, I remember our phones were drenched in blood. At one point I didn’t think I would make it, so I rang my mum.”
The gunman, now 20, has name suppression after admitting three charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm with a firearm.
He is also serving a concurrent six-month sentence for receiving $1700 worth of stolen goods after an unrelated road rage incident.
Poull Andersen was shot with multiple pellets on Fort St in the early hours of Saturday March 5, 2022.
“The victim Andersen walked towards the defendant before the defendant points the firearm towards the victim and discharges it,” according to the summary of facts for the case.
“The victim Andersen is shot with multiple pellets hitting him across the body.”
Two bystanders, sisters, were also sprayed with the shotgun pellets, with one of the siblings suffering wounds to her face and upper body.
The man later told police he didn’t know what the firearm was “and that he just dinged it and it went ‘boom’”, court documents state. Judge Kathryn Maxwell assessed a starting point of nine years for the shooting and the receiving charges but deducted 20 per cent for his guilty pleas and a 5 per cent discount for his youth. Defence lawyer Kate Leys had sought a 15 per cent discount for youth.
Maxwell noted his age might have contributed to his “violent and impulsive manner” that night, but she described the issue of a youth discount as “a difficult one” because he’s been “no stranger” to the justice system.
“For such a young man you have serious previous convictions,” she said. “Your history tempers any discount for youth.”
He also received a 5 per cent discount for remorse, having written letters of apology to each victim, and a 10 per cent discount for his traumatic childhood.
Poull Andersen and his sister, Jay Jay Feeney. Photo / Michael Craig
Judge Maxwell said the offending was aggravated because of the level of pre-meditation involved, with the gunman leaving the scene to retrieve a gun, and the extreme violence of the “unprovoked and gratuitous” attack.
As she wished the defendant well at the end of the hearing, the judge also noted he had a daughter born in June and expressed hope that may inspire him to take a new course in life.
“You can choose that kind of dysfunction if you want to [or] try something different,” she said of returning to gangs when he eventually gets out of prison. “I guess ultimately this is a choice for you.”
Radio host Jay-Jay Feeney, her brother Poull Andersen and mother Robynne Andersen. Poull Andersen says he wants the gunman to serve his full sentence. Photo / Michael Craig
“Your selfish actions have seriously affected a number of people,” she said.
Andersen says he has lost his livelihood and his girlfriend. He wants the offender to serve the full sentence, learn from his mistakes and be there for his child.
“My outlook on life is dark. I only focus on negative things. I haven’t slept since the night of the shooting, and I am always on edge. If I hear the slightest noise, I get twitchy. The gunman has broken me, and I hate what I’ve become.”
Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland- based investigative journalist. She worked for the Herald on Sunday in 2007 and joined the Herald in 2016. She was previously a commissioner at TVNZ and an award-winning current affairs producer for 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.
