Man with air rifle put schools in lockdown

File photo / NZ Herald

A man who placed two Greymouth schools and a preschool in lockdown with a full scale armed offenders alert when he presented an air rifle at a group of students, received a community sentence.

Judge Gary MacAskill told Matthew Ryan Rex Mahuika, 22, that the sentence was not as harsh as many people in the community wanted in response to the August 26 incident, when he appeared for sentencing this week in Greymouth District Court.

"You caused great inconvenience but I cannot sentence you on inconvenience, only on your level of criminality," Judge MacAskill said.

Mahuika admitted charges of presenting an air rifle at the schoolchildren, and unrelated charges of trespassing on the New World supermarket and stealing a pack of bacon from the store.

He was sentenced to 150 hours' community work, nine months' supervision and ordered to pay reparation of $14 to the supermarket.

At 11am on August 26, Mahuika was on the balcony of an Alexander Street house on the hill overlooking John Paul II High School. When one of a group of students changing class yelled to him, "how's it going?", Mahuika went inside and uplifted the air rifle, which he pointed at three students.

Believing it to be a rifle, they took cover behind a classroom and alerted a teacher. Soon the whole school of 186 students was in lockdown, as was the adjoining St Patrick's Primary School and its 140 pupils, and the Barnardos preschool with 28 children in class.

The two and a half hour lockdown of the schools and surrounding streets caused widespread anxiety among parents. Most of the 25 police officers involved had to be taken away from other duties and a second armed offenders squad from Nelson was dispatched, the court heard.

Lawyer Eymard Bradley said Mahuika had been "immature and foolhardy in the extreme", and he had no idea of the consequences that would result. He maintained that he had not pointed the rifle at the students but had been aiming it at a bush.

Mahuika stole the bacon in November, while on bail on the air rifle charge.

- The Greymouth Star