‘Being scared of him didn’t cross my mind’
The woman who tried to save the Upper Hutt gunman
LESLEY SOLE is convinced Pera Smiler was about to hand over his rifle when police shot him dead a few metres from her.
The 63-year-old has for the first time publicly shared her account about attempting to disarm Smiler after he fired a shot in McDonald’s in Upper Hutt at lunchtime on September 8.
Nearly a month on, she said she remained shocked and disappointed that her efforts to help him had failed.
‘‘I felt guilty afterwards because I thought I failed because it ended in such a tragedy, but police told me I’m never ever to think I failed.’’
Yesterday police said the CCTV footage from the scene offered a ‘‘different perspective’’ to Sole’s account.
They would not comment on specific details of her account but confirmed they spoke to her after the shooting.
‘‘We need to let the various investigations run their course based on all the facts available, not based on speculation,’’ Wellington District Commander Superintendent Sam Hoyle said.
Sole works part-time at City Stop, a dairy opposite McDonald’s in Wakefield St. That day, she said she heard several shots fired, but assumed a car was backfiring until she saw Smiler on the McDonald’s steps brandishing a rifle.
After calming several terrified customers, she said she decided to act. ‘‘I had to find out in my own mind why he was doing what he was doing. Being scared of him didn’t cross my mind at all. I know he could have shot me, I know he could have done a lot of damage, but I felt in myself I had to do something.’’
She said she walked outside and sat on a nearby seat to talk with Smiler, who was standing in the middle of the road, waving his gun around and yelling at police to shoot him.
‘‘I thought if I could get him talking to me and not worrying about the police, things could change.’’
However, police told her to get inside, so she moved to the shop’s doorway and kept talking to him, she said. ‘‘I went out and I said to him, ‘Have you got a problem?’, and he said that the police had stopped him from joining the army.’’
He called her a ‘‘nice lady’’ and thanked her but said if he could not be in the army, life wasn’t worth living, she said. She tried to convince him to come over and asked him to give her his rifle. After a verbal back and forth, he dropped the rifle to his side and walked over to her to mount the pavement beside her shop, she said.
‘‘I thought, ‘Oh good, we’ve got to the stage now where he’ll give up the rifle and that’d be it’, but no such luck.’’
Just at that moment, a police dog rushed around a corner at him and she heard him say, ‘‘There’s a lady next to me’’.
She then saw Smiler raise his rifle as if to shoot the police dog, but he was shot and fell in front of her before he could pull the trigger, Sole said.
She said she spent two days afterwards recounting what she witnessed to police.
Sole, who volunteers at Rimutaka Prison teaching male inmates to read and write, said she would do the same thing again if required.
Investigations by police, the Independent Police Conduct Authority and the coroner into what happened that day are continuing.
Smiler had been due to appear in court on drink-driving and fraud charges.
POLICE RESPONSE
While it is natural that there are many questions about what happened, and many differing versions of events, we need to let the various investigations run their course based on all the facts available, not based on speculation.
As part of these inquiries, police have spoken with dozens of witnesses, including Ms Sole, all of whom have different recollections and views of the events that day, which is understandable given the highly stressful and volatile nature of the incident.
Police have been continuing to provide liaison and ongoing support for those witnesses and bystanders impacted by the traumatic events of that day, many of whom are still coming to terms with what occurred.
Police have also reviewed CCTV and cellphone footage of the incident, which captures some of the events leading up to the death of Mr Smiler, including his interactions with others nearby.
This footage provides a different perspective of the events than what Ms Sole recalls, which is not uncommon among those who witness traumatic events. This footage will be made available to the [Independent Police Conduct] Authority and the coroner as appropriate in due course for them to draw their own conclusions as part of their respective inquiries.
While we await the findings of the various inquiries, I consider that staff on the day acted with considerable courage and professionalism to respond to what was clearly a highly volatile and dangerous situation, without further injury to the public or police staff.
It should not be forgotten that these types of incidents are among the most dangerous possible for all involved, including our staff and the public. In this case, there was an agitated armed man, in the middle of the day in a busy street, who had discharged a firearm inside a building and also at police, clearly presenting a significant risk. While we are saddened at his death, we could easily have been dealing with more tragedy had the situation not been resolved.
Wellington Police continue to liaise closely with Mr Smiler’s whanau, who are still grieving the loss of their son and brother.