KEY POINTS:
The wife of the police officer who fatally shot a Christchurch man has dismissed the wildly different versions of the incident and warned that misleading news reports could put people in danger in the future.
Speaking outside the couple's Rangiora lifestyle block, the woman told the Herald on
Sunday that both she and her husband had received messages of support, for which they were grateful.
She said reports her husband fired on Stephen Bellingham when his hands were down and did not check his pulse after he was felled, were wrong.
"I think people watch too much American television," she said.
Her comments are backed up by three new witnesses who told the Herald on Sunday there was little the officer could do. One woman who watched the shooting unfold from her house just across the road said the policeman "had no other choice".
"He tried to talk him out of it, calm him down for a couple of minutes. If he didn't shoot him, we would be investigating another homicide, or maybe more.
"The first shot didn't even slow him down, it was the second one which put him down."
The woman, who asked not to be named, was angry at reports the officer did not check the pulse of the dead man. "He did straight away. I could see that he was crying."
Nick, a 17-year-old neighbour, agreed with the woman's version of events. He heard Bellingham break into a parked car across the road and then watched from the front door of his house as Bellingham tried to "hotwire" the vehicle. When the police car pulled up minutes later, Nick said the officer unholstered his pistol as soon as he got out of the car and told Bellingham to "put the hammer down".
As Bellingham closed the door of the car and advanced towards the police vehicle with hammer in hand, the cop retreated to the rear of his car, then five metres back to the middle of Stanmore Rd.
"The whole time he was yelling to put the hammer down, but the guy kept walking towards him. He looked out of it. Then the guy raised it way above his head and I heard four shots and saw the muzzle flash.
"He was only a metre away from the cop when he went down. The cop looked scared shitless, but I guess you would be."
Mike, who lives on the other side of the road, was walking to the shops when he saw Bellingham break into the car. When the police car arrived, he retreated to his driveway to watch the action unfold. Mike says Bellingham walked directly towards the officer with hammer in hand, despite repeat warnings to stop, and then "lunged" at the policeman with the hammer.
"The whole thing only would've taken a minute, the guy was very violent looking, I don't blame the cop at all. He told him to back off and put the hammer down. What else was he supposed to do?"
His next-door neighbour Zack heard four shots from his bedroom and rushed outside, arriving 30 seconds later. "I asked the cop if he had checked his pulse but he ignored me. He looked guilty-as."
Bellingham's uncle, John Trischler, told the Herald on Sunday that the family were gathering in Hawkes Bay and "were having a few laughs" remembering him. He rejected earlier reports which said Bellingham was survived by a partner and children.
"We don't know a whole heap at the moment. Once we know what was happening in the hours before he died we'll have a better picture of how it came to this."
