When he arrived, he saw one of the tenants, 51-year-old Robinson, getting ready to mow the lawns at the front of the property.
The landlord says he parked down the road and waited for him to go inside, so he could take his photographs.
And so when Robinson went inside, he says he reversed his Toyota Hilux ute to opposite the property, got out, and started taking pictures from the road. He says he never stepped onto the property.
But he says his female tenant started to racially abuse him and telling to "p*** off".
"I was a little bit wound up because she called me a 'black pig' and any racist comment doesn't go down very well in my books," says the Fiji-born Hindu who's been living in New Zealand for 36 years and lost some Muslim friends in the March 15 mosque shootings.
He kept taking photos when he saw "Tony [Robinson] running down the driveway saying, 'What the f*** are you doing'?"
Robinson was waving his fist coming down the driveway, says the landlord who claims he felt threatened.
He quickly retreated to his idling ute and "pressed the accelerator, hoping I'd miss him".
The driver's side window was down and, with hindsight, says he felt a hand on his neck.
"My reaction was to get away from there – that was the only thought in my mind. I wasn't looking sideways – I was looking forward only," the landlord told the Herald today.
"A few seconds later… he yelled out, 'You are hurting me'. That was the first time I heard him. I realised he was hanging on to the car.
"I slammed on the brakes because I didn't want to hurt him. He fell to the tarseal, towards the middle of the road, he fell on the ground.
"We're only talking 100m-120m from the start. I saw people running behind the car so I knew somebody would call the ambulance."
He parked two streets away and phoned police.
"I feared for my safety. I told [111] I would only go back if they could guarantee my safety. I stayed on the police line the whole time," he says.
When he returned to the scene, paramedics were tending to Robinson.
The landlord sat on a nearby fence and waited for about an hour before a police officer told him Robinson had passed away.
He says he went into shock and was shivering.
"My only thought was, 'What has happened here?'" he says.
"It all happened very quickly. It probably only took five seconds. If I could reverse those five seconds, I would."
The landlord says he "definitely avoided" running Robinson over.
He thinks the fatal injuries came when he fell onto the road.
Officers took the landlord to the police station where he gave a voluntary statement. His ute has not yet been returned.
"It's sad what has happened [but] I did not do anything wrong," he said today.
"If I do get charged … that worry is on my head at the moment. Somebody did die but that wasn't my intention. My intention was to get away from that situation. In the process if I hit somebody, well … in that five seconds, there was only one person who was important to me, which was me."
Police are still investigating the fatal incident and have already spoken to a number of witnesses.
"At this stage there have not been any arrests made in relation to the matter," a spokeswoman told the Herald this afternoon.
However, officers still want to speak to anyone who saw what happened on Saturday evening. Any witnesses are requested to phone 105 and quote file number 200201/8672.
