Gunfighter Rollie Heke jailed

A man who shot at three police officers on the outskirts of Morrinsville with a semiautomatic rifle before going on the run has been jailed for six years and 11 months.

It comes on top of a five year, five month jail sentence on methamphetamine charges for Rollie James Heke, 38 – meaning he faces a 12-year, four-month stay behind bars, with a minimum non-parole period of 50 per cent.

Heke appeared in the High Court in Hamilton yesterday, for sentencing on a single representative charge of using a firearm against law enforcement officers.

That charge was laid following an incident in Kuranui Road, near Morrinsville, shortly after midday on Sunday, August 13 last year.

Heke was already on the run when he was spotted speeding in a red Holden by a police officer on patrol in the Waikato town.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of importing methamphetamine and conspiring to import methamphetamine at the High Court in Wellington, where he had been remanded on electronically monitored bail to return to court for sentencing in October 2016.

However, he had cut off his monitoring bracelet and went on the run.

Other charges against Heke, including three counts of attempted murder, were withdrawn by the Crown. The identities of the three police officers involved in the gunfight have been suppressed.

Heke was sentenced to five years and five months in jail on the two methamphetamine charges in September last year.

At Heke’s sentencing yesterday, Crown Prosecutor Ross Douch called for the ‘‘sternest denunciation’’ for Heke, who had ‘‘an appalling role model’’ in the form of his father, a senior member of the Black Power gang.

Justice Christian Whata spoke about Heke’s turbulent upbringing, including moving to several different towns and witnessing domestic violence at a young age, which was the result of ‘‘systemic deprivation’’.

The judge expressed his dismay that in a cultural report made on Heke prior to sentencing he had failed to express any kind or remorse or concern for the police officers he had shot at.