Before Matu Reid used a shotgun to kill two workers at a downtown Auckland construction site he’d strangled a woman during an attack so violent that it left her with a broken bone in her neck.
A judge’s eight-page sentencing notes explain why Reid was serving home detention for domestic violence offending when he carried out a mass shooting that claimed the lives of three people, including his own.
As previously reported, the Flat Bush resident fatally shot two workers at a construction site in lower Queen Street shortly after 7am on July 20.
He injured 10 other people, including a police officer. The 24-year-old exchanged gunfire with armed police and was found dead.
Police say his fatal injury was self-inflicted. Following the tragedy, it was revealed Reid was serving a sentence of home detention in Flat Bush.
He was allowed to work at the construction site where he carried out the shooting.
Reid did not possess a firearms licence. The Department of Corrections is carrying out a full review into his management.
He’d previously appeared before Judge Stephen Bonnar at the Auckland District Court for sentencing on March 28 after pleading guilty to charges of strangulation, injuring with intent to injure, wilful damage and male assaults female.
The charges stemmed from a 2021 incident involving a female victim.
Judge Bonnar told Reid the most serious charge he faced was that of strangulation.
“It carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. That should give you some idea of the potential jeopardy you face as a result of this offending.”
Reid was living at a property in an unnamed Auckland suburb at the time of the offending.
His female victim was staying there part-time. One afternoon Reid and the woman were drinking outside.
He continued to consume alcohol and at about 11.30pm his victim said something that caused him to become angry.
The pair argued while the woman was sitting in a chair, the judge told Reid.
“You pushed [the victim] on her left shoulder causing her to fall off the chair and collide with the dressing table and the wall of the bedroom, before falling to the floor.
“When she tried to speak to you, you verbally abused her and then threw something at her head, hitting her in the right eye.
“You threatened her and suggested that you would ‘take out’ her partner and the rest of her family.”
Reid kicked the woman in the stomach and “sent her flying backwards onto the bed”.
While the woman was on the bed, Reid stood over her and used both hands to squeeze her throat for about 10 seconds. She was not able to breathe.
“It would have been a terrifying event for her,” the judge said.
A bone in her neck was broken during the attack.
Reid released her throat and punched her on the right side of her face with a closed fist.
He continued to verbally abuse her and “slap and punch her on the left side of her face”.
Reid stopped the attack and told the woman she didn’t know what he was capable of.
He then approached the woman while holding a pair of scissors.
“[The victim] challenged you and you picked up a wine bottle nearby and swung it at her but missed her,” the judge said.
“You said that ‘I’ve had enough, it’s time, I’m going to take you all’, and stormed out of the room.”
The woman fled the address and went to a nearby petrol station, where she phoned police.
Reid also lit a fire in the victim’s bedroom.
The victim was hospitalised due to her injuries and suffered “significant ongoing emotional harm” as a result of Reid’s actions, the judge said.
In sentencing Reid, Judge Bonnar began with a starting point of two years and three months’ imprisonment for the crime of strangulation.
The judge said he agreed with the prosecution of an “appropriate uplift” of eight months for the other charges.
He gave Reid a discount of about 25 per cent for his guilty plea.
Judge Bonnar gave further discounts for Reid’s background, youth, and expressions of remorse, and a credit for the amount of time he’d spent on remand and electronically-monitored bail.
“I do not want to send a young man like you, with a limited history, to prison,” he said.
“I think that could be counterproductive and actually set you down the wrong path.”
The judge sentenced Reid to five months’ home detention with a set of conditions including completion of an anti-violence programme.
Judge Bonnar ended the sentencing by saying to Reid: “Take this as an opportunity, take whatever help and programmes Probation can give you while you are on your home detention sentence, and I hope we do not see you back before the court on anything like this again.”
Reid committed the mass shooting four months later.
