Staring down shotgun after a knock on door

By NAOMI LARKIN

Barbara opened the back door to let the family dog out and found herself staring down the barrels of a sawn-off shotgun.

The gunman grabbed at the 58-year-old's face, cutting her lip and pushing her back inside her Green Bay home. He forced her onto the floor as she screamed for her husband and son.

The nightmare began for Barbara (not her real name) at 10.45 pm on Sunday and was one of two gunpoint home invasions West Auckland police were still trying to piece together yesterday.

"There is nothing at all to suggest that they are linked - but we can't rule it out," said Detective Sergeant Gary Davey.

Barbara's husband Brian, 60, said he and their 32-year-old son were watching television when they heard his wife's cries.

"We rushed out and were confronted by the guy with the shotgun. He pushed it in my face.

"There was another one with him. The one with the gun was shouting 'Where's the money, where's the cash, where's the safe?'"

He and his son were forced onto the floor beside Barbara while the second man took the gun and stood over them.

His partner began ransacking the house: "He was agitated and wide-eyed. He was getting stroppy. He felt threatened and was saying, 'I've got a gun, I'll shoot you'," Brian said.

"I think he was getting frustrated because he couldn't find anything."

Brian, who is retired, believes the attack was a case of mistaken identity.

"We don't have a safe but he was moving pictures on the wall and mirrors looking for a safe. I think they had the wrong address - right number, wrong street."

Although they returned to their home yesterday after spending the night with family, Barbara was too shaken to talk to the Herald. "He [the gunman] said he'd come back," Brian said.

Detective Sergeant Davey said he was shocked at the viciousness and unprovoked nature of the attack.

"There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why they picked that address."

He believed a third person might have been waiting in a car. Police last night had only sketchy details of the attackers - both were wearing dark clothing, and one was Maori and the other Pakeha.

In the second incident, a 40-year-old man suffered head injuries after three men entered his Henderson house just before 8 pm on Sunday.

Detective Sergeant Davey said one was carrying a double-barrelled, sawn-off shotgun and another a fire extinguisher.

The house owner was not shot at and it was unclear if his head wounds were from the gun or the extinguisher. It was possible the man knew his attackers and it was not yet clear if anything was taken, he said.

An 18-month-old child in the house was unhurt.