Police feared they were "looking at March 15" all over again when they surrounded a Christchurch man they feared was planning a mass-shooting just days after the 2019 mosque attacks.
The standoff, which ended in the man's self-inflicted death, was handled appropriately by officers, a coroner's inquest ruling released today has found.
Artemity Vldmirovich Dubovskiy, a 54-year-old welder also known as Troy, had become a person of interest to police after sending an email to his son's former school on March 20, 2019.
In it, he expressed support for the mosque attacks which had happened five days earlier, describing New Zealand's worst terrorist act as "a heroic ideological self-sacrifice".
Assistant Commissioner Corrie Parnell told the inquest the email was "certainly ... the first catalyst for wanting further exploration of him as a lead or person of interest", and that it "would be at your peril to do a trade-off and just say, we'll discount that".
Search warrants were executed at addresses linked to Dubovskiy on March 26, with officers locating firearms, ammunition, knives, night-vision goggles, a ballistic helmet, Nazi paraphernalia and other items.
One airsoft firearm was a replica of the weapon used in the Christchurch mosque attacks.
When Parnell saw photographs of what had been seized, "it was like I was looking at March 15, a similar case", he told the inquest.
Then-commanding officer of the Southern Special Tactics Group, Inspector Steve Mather described a country on edge.
New Zealand's national threat level had been lifted from "low" to "high" for the first time, meaning a terrorist attack was assessed as very likely.
A heavily armed man died following an overnight standoff with police in the Richmond suburb. (Source: 1News)
"The whole country was in a heightened state of vigilance," Mather told the inquest, adding that police were "certainly expecting further problems in the weeks following the 15th of March".
Before he was found, Dubovskiy had told various people he would not surrender. Police briefings included an assessment that he was planning a mass-casualty shooting with his plan close to being put into action.
The night of his death
Dubovskiy was seen in his vehicle about 12.20am on March 27 and was followed into Poulton Ave, a dead-end street in the suburb of Richmond.
The Special Tactics Group established an armed cordon, and negotiators from the Police Negotiation Team began speaking with him by phone at 12.38am.
Because police did not know whether he was armed or had an explosive device in the vehicle, an in-person conversation was ruled out.
Communication was lost at around 3am, with police making a total of 80 unanswered calls to his two phones.
A team leader, referred to as Officer P, called the loss of contact "a critical point", telling the inquest "the fact that we had such good rapport and engagement" suggested the silence "wasn't avoidance" but a welfare concern, meaning police had to consider moving forward.
An NZDF light operational vehicle was moved forward to protect staff and prevent Dubovskiy leaving the cordon, with officers deploying gas and moving to extract him from his car. He was found to be critically injured and was treated at the scene but could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 4.32am.
Coroner Heather McKenzie found police actions and inactions were appropriate throughout, including the decision to advance the armoured vehicle and extract Dubovskiy once contact was lost.
The family's view
Dubovskiy's family, represented at the inquest by counsel, argued the overall response was "unjustifiably heightened" and that he had been treated as "an equivalent threat as the mosque attacker".
They submitted the approach was not warranted given the content of the emails, that many of the seized weapons were imitation or non-operational, and other information about his character and history.
The coroner found no evidence for that. "There is no evidence before me that Police officers involved were traumatised by the mosque attacks and that this coloured their actions," her findings state. She accepted the attacks were "properly relevant context" given established knowledge that copycat attacks can follow.
The family had also suggested police record video footage of such events. The coroner saw a benefit in ensuring an accurate record but pointed to practical difficulties, including that people "might not be as willing to engage in a negotiation if it is filmed", and did not make the recommendation.
The Independent Police Complaints Authority earlier assessed the response as having been dealt with "lawfully and appropriately" and found no misconduct by the officers involved or any breach of police policy.
Coroner McKenzie found Dubovskiy died in circumstances amounting to suicide.
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