Gunman identified; burnt body removed
Police have formally named the man who fatally shot a mother and daughter as Quinn Patterson after removing his burnt body from a home in Whangarei.
Police said last night that human remains had been recovered from the house in Mt Tiger Rd where Wendy Campbell and her daughter Natanya were killed.
The pair were at the house, rented by Patterson, to perform a property inspection.
A contractor, Jeff Pipe, was also shot but managed to escape. The house went up in flames shortly afterwards.
Police said the body recovered from the home was ’’badly burnt’’ and formal identification would take some time.
However, they believed the remains to be those of Patterson, ‘‘based on the circumstances’’.
Police and the armed offenders squad were called to the property on Wednesday following reports of a shooting.
They put their lives in danger to form a human shield around the Campbells, despite knowing that Patterson was armed and in the vicinity.
Armed officers protected medically trained police staff as they tried to rescue the pair, but their efforts were in vain as they were already dead.
‘‘Our AOS and Police staff did everything they could and despite knowing there was an active shooter in the immediate vicinity, AOS have still entered the property to see if there was any chance they could save Wendy and Natanya,’’ Northland District Commander Superintendent Russell Le Prou said.
Pipe was shot in the back and shoulder and remained in a stable condition in Whangarei Hospital on Thursday night.
Patterson had a violent past and stabbed Hamilton police dog hand- ler Bruce Howatt in 1983.
He was originally charged with attempted murder and was sentenced to five years in prison for the crime.
That conviction was later quashed by the Court of Appeal and Patterson was sentenced instead to 18 months for causing grievous bodily harm.
Patterson’s friend, Leah Cameron, said he had taken medication for depression in the past.
‘‘Nothing really seemed to help that much and he would have these episodes, these little depress- ive episodes,’’ Cameron said.
She shared the final text message she had received from Patterson.
‘‘This life is just a continuous struggle without end or point and I’m done with it,’’ it read in part.
‘‘Each day I wake up and I realise to my dismay that I’m still here.’’
Patterson was described by locals as a loner who fired guns on a daily basis.
Local residents said Patterson’s constant shooting made them uncomfortable, and several had considered calling the police to warn them about his strange behaviour.
Patterson had lived alone for several years at the property on Mt Tiger Rd, about 10km east of Whangarei, in a remote area dotted with pine trees and steep gullies.
Nearby resident Brad Walters confirmed his identity, and identified Patterson from a picture on his LinkedIn profile. Another resident also identified Patterson from the picture, but did not want to be named.
Interviews with Patterson’s neighbours yesterday painted a picture of a recluse who kept to himself and had repeated run-ins with other people who lived in the area.
Walters said he and other neighbours were concerned by the amount of shooting heard coming from the property Patterson was renting tucked away in the bushes.
‘‘He was just a bit of an old cowboy,’’ Walters said.
‘‘When [the house] went on fire it was just going off like fireworks, he must have had so much ammo,’’ he added.
Andrew Randall lives in a caravan on a small block of land right next to Patterson’s home, and said he heard him firing off guns ‘‘on a daily basis’’. ‘‘I’ve been concerned for a while. There’s been a lot of gunfire. It would be several times a day, in bursts.
‘‘A couple of times it felt like it was quite close, like it was fullauto,’’ he said.
It’s understood Patterson had become embroiled in several conflicts with neighbours, and did not have a good relationship with the owners of the property he was renting. Randall said he had met Patterson about four times, but he ‘‘liked his privacy, and liked to keep himself to himself’’.
‘‘He seemed to take offence easily, and he wasn’t the most empathetic person,’’ Randall said.
Randall said that when he heard gunfire on Wednesday morning he assumed it was nothing out of the ordinary, and thought ‘‘there goes that idiot again’’.
He only realised something was wrong when police bullhorns started sounding in the area.
Friends and family gathered at Wendy Campbell‘s home in Onerahi yesterday to support her husband Tony, who they said was ‘‘very distraught at this time’’.