Nederlandse "Rambo" draait door in Nieuw-Zeeland

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More than 150 residents are unable to return to their homes, some schools are shut and city streets closed as police continue their stand-off with Napier gunman Jan Molenaar.
Full coverage: Napier siege

Molenaar is holed up in a house on Napier Hill after shooting and killing Senior Constable Len Snee, 53, who was executing a cannabis search warrant, about 9.30am yesterday.

Senior Constable Bruce Miller, 40, a community constable in the suburb of Ahuriri, dog handler Senior Constable Grant Diver, 50, and the neighbour were wounded by gunshots.

They are in intensive care in Hawke's Bay Hospital and their conditions were listed as critical this morning.

At a press conference in Napier this afternoon Eastern District Commander Superintendent Sam Hoyle told media that police were prepared to wait it out.

"This could be over in five minutes or it could be another five days."

He said police were prepared for either eventuality.

"I am well aware that time is moving on and we have been working on this for more than 24 hours."

He said every resource had been made available to police, with over 100 extra officers brought in from around the country.

He also confirmed that the bomb squad had been called in but would not give more any more details.

"I have to have consideration for those officers still on the ground who are still putting themselves under considerable risk under the knowledge three of their colleagues were shot yesterday."

Around 1.40pm a light-armoured vehicle, an armed offenders squad wagon, and an ambulance went into Chaucer Rd in a successful bid to evacuate an elderly woman who needed medication.

Street lights were turned off around the house last night. Mr Hoyle said there were a number of options police had regarding utilities. "Some we have used, some we haven't".

Mr Hoyle said police were continuting negotiations with the gunman but wouldn't elaborate on whether any demands had been made.

Police also said the civilian shot as he tried to wrestle a gun away from Molenaar yesterday remained in a serious condition.

The man, believed to be a neighbour of Molenaar, had arrived at the house as police were executing a search warrant.

He had tried to wrestle the firearm away as Molenaar shot at police, Mr Hoyle said.

Police have also been speaking with Mr Molenaar's friends and family to try to understand his motivation for the shooting.

''The negotiations have been tense. We are dealing with a very complex character and as you might expect in negotiations going on for this amount of time he goes through various mood swings,'' said Mr Hoyle.

He said Molenaar had a number of firearms with him and at least one of them was a semi-automatic rifle.

Mr Snee still lies where he was shot. Mr Hoyle said it had been incredibly difficult for his colleagues to be not be able to retrieve him.

Tactical commanders had been looking at all options for getting his body out.

Mr Diver's five-year-old police dog Fi was with him during the attack. Police say the dog is still in Mr Diver's van but nobody has heard from him yet.

''There is a degree of urgency for getting him out of the van,'' Mr Hoyle said.

CORDON, CONTAIN, APPEAL

Shots were heard overnight and light armoured vehicles were brought in to back up police at the scene where gunman Molenaar is holed up in a house.

Mr Hoyle said fresh tactical staff from all over the country were being rotated to the scene.

"We are relying on the tried and true policy of cordon, contain and appeal."

Not being able to remove Mr Snee's lifeless body from the scene was painful to all the police involved, Mr Hoyle said.

"It hurts all of us. Len should be with his family. We wish more than anything we could have got him out overnight."

Numerous attempts to do so had been met with "dozens" of gunfire blasts, he said.

The civilian who was critically wounded in yesterday's shooting had arrived at Molenaar's house while the search warrant was being executed yesterday morning, Mr Hoyle said.

"He's attempted to disarm the offender and for his trouble got shot."

He had acted quite heroically, Mr Hoyle said.

Police had been able to speak with Mr Diver in hospital overnight. His information had shed "quite a bit" of light on the situation, Mr Hoyle said.

Police had been striving to interview as many of gunman's associates as possible - as well as speaking to his family - to ascertain how many weapons he had at his disposal, he said.

"We know he has a number of weapons, he's fired on us with a number of different calibres."

He did not hold a firearms licence, Mr Hoyle said.

When asked what his message to the gunman would be, Mr Hoyle said: "Give himself up".

"Answer his phone and give himself up."

The gunman had only been answering phone calls sporadically from police overnight, he said.

Mr Hoyle said he wished for the gunman to surrender to police and go through the normal criminal process.

"We want a peaceful resolution with no one getting hurt."

GUNMAN JUST 'FLIPPED'

His brother, Peter Molenaar, told Radio New Zealand the matter had gone ''way out'' of his hands and it was ''maybe not likely'' that his brother would survive.

Peter Molenaar said his brother came home from walking his dog yesterday morning and found police in his house gathering evidence of alleged cannabis growing.

''Obviously, he was all pumped up from his walk and his adrenaline was going, and that was it.''

His brother reached for his gun and told the officers to get out. Peter Molenaar did not know why his brother had chosen to start shooting.

There was further gunfire from the house overnight. Several shots were fired at 2.07am, then a long series of shots - more than a dozen - at 2.53am.

Jan Molenaar's partner, who safely left the house yesterday, said he had just overreacted to the situation and ''flipped''.


Peter Molenaar said his brother had told him he knew police had been watching the house over the past couple of weeks.

He said Jan was an ''occasional'' drug user, but had ''definitely not'' used P.

Peter Molenaar said he wanted to say to the families of the police officers involved that he was ''very sorry'' for what had happened.

SIEGE CONTINUES


Police Commissioner Howard Broad and Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott visited the scene this morning.

Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said police asked the defence force for ''assistance with resources''. The army had responded by sending two light armoured vehicles.

Three schools were closed today as a precautionary measure.

Parents and caregivers of Napier Central School, Napier Intermediate and Nelson Park School were being asked to make alternative arrangements for their children.

Road blocks were in place at several major intersections and commuters were being asked to take alternative routes.

About 30 armed offenders squad (AOS) members and other specialist police staff from across the North Island were continuing to surround the house, Ms Calder said.

Members of the Special Tactics Group - the police counter-terrorist and tactical wing - have joined AOS officers in the cordon around the house.

A journalist at the scene reported three armoured vehicles had arrived in the area around the house, where former army reservist Mr Molenaar was holed up with a rifle and possibly explosives.

Mr Molenaar, a 51-year-old former territorial army member, has been firing a high-powered rifle sporadically at police officers surrounding the house.

Eastern District Commander Superintendent Sam Hoyle said last night the gunman could stay holed up in his house for hours.

VICTIMS IN CRITICAL CONDITION

The two police officers and a member of the public who were injured in the Napier shooting are listed as critical, Police Minister Judith Collins said today.

Ms Collins, who was about to head for Napier, said she had been briefed on the situation.

"The gunman has been continuing to fire shots, as it has been described to me on the hour, every hour," she said on Radio New Zealand.

Asked about the wounded officers and the civilian, reported to live near the scene of the shooting, Ms Collins said: "I've been told this morning they've been listed as critical."

The wounded officers have been named as Senior Constable Bruce miller, 40, a community constable, and dog handler Senior Constable Grant Diver, 50.

The civilian has not been named.

Ms Collins said the evacuation was still going on as police removed neighbours or anyone who was in line of sight of the siege house.

"Obviously it's a very big task, it's a huge imposition on the people of Napier but the police say it has to be done," she said.

"They have asked for certain resources, I can't go into that. They're planning for contingencies, it's a very volatile situation."

HEAVILY ARMED

Friends of Molenaar, say he is a former territorial soldier and likely to be heavily armed.

One person described him as a "one-man army", and a friend told how he bade farewell to his partner as if he "had already accepted his fate".

Peter Molenaar, one of Jan's five brothers, said Jan sold a few tinnies to his mates, but was no big-time drug dealer and he had no gang connections.

He said his message to his brother would be to "try and give yourself up".

"..but it's hard to say at the moment what's going through someone's head."

Peter Molenaar said he was "very sorry for what's happened here".

"I didn't find out until late in the morning what happened... I just went into shock."

He said his family are very upset and have not been able to talk to their brother since the siege began.

"This situation is a complete nightmare, perhaps it was a nightmare waiting to happen," said Molenaar's friend and business partner Arthur Hyde.

"The guy is a total Rambo, OK? I've never met another person that's fitter than him. He's a very good marksman, he's just the wrong person. Wrong person, wrong place, wrong time, the police should have f...ing known. That's their business."

Molenaar's friends said they doubted he would give himself up and police should not enter the house.

Molenaar was a part-time territorial force soldier, attached to the armoured corps, from 1982-88, and friends believe he is heavily armed, and they suspect he may have "wired the place" too.

"There's enough there to take that house off the face of the planet," friend Tony Moore said.

Mr Moore said Molenaar said goodbye to his partner, who left the property a short time after the seige began, as if he intended to die. "He said 'Goodbye Hon', had a good blubber about it, and then: 'best you go'. So he's already accepted his fate."

Mr Moore said he asked police to let him speak to Molenaar to talk him around but they rejected the offer.

Another friend Allan Roser described Molenaar as a "one man army". "He's like a special forces type of character. It wouldn't surprise me if he had a bunker under there."

Mr Hyde sent Molenaar a text message yesterday morning telling him to give himself up but did not get a response.

The gunman's mother, Anna, said she wanted to apologise to the dead officer's family and those who were injured in hospital.

She was struggling to understand what had happened. "I don't know why they grow up and become vicious," she told TV One's Close Up.

"What are they trying to protect ... a silly marijuana plant? What a thing to protect, take someone's life. Now someone has been shot and two others I can't quite believe it really." She wanted to ask her son why he had not thought of the good things in his life, including his "wonderful son ... he's going going to have to put up with this for the rest of his life."