Chase ‘pointed gun in hotel’

Press, 23 April 1983, Page 8

Chase ‘pointed gun in hotel’

PA Wellington Paul Chase, who was shot dead by the police on Monday, had pointed a loaded shotgun at customers in the Hutt Park Hotel last Saturday evening, it was reported yesterday. Onlookers said that Mr Chase, aged 25, and two other men had jumped on tables, smashing glasses and bottles while waving the shotgun, according to the “Dominion” newspaper. One man had the shotgun pointed at his head as he fell to the floor and cowered with his hands over his head.

A broken glass was jabbed into one man’e eye, necessitating five stitches. The newspaper quoted one onlooker as saying: “Anyone who says the police did not need guns to face that guy should have been at the pub on Saturday night — they’d soon change their mind. i’/fei - “That' Chase and his mates were, just nuts. I thought they were going to kill somebody.” The man declined to be named for fear of retribution bythe ; Mongrel : Mob, the report said. ” The man said Mr Chase and two , other men had walked intothe hotpl "• at 10.15 p.m.A (ight broket out immediately after a young Maori had apparently bumped into one of them. The man said they were thrown out, but returned about 15 minutes later with a sawn-off silver-barrelled shotgun. They walked on to the dance floor and began pointing the gun at drinkers, who dived under tables and rushed for the doors as the three men shouted abuse

and yelled Mongrel Mob chants. One of the men, not Mr Chase, fired the shotgun at the ceiling as the three left, the man said. The lead pellets hit a concrete section of the roof and were deflected down. At least 10 people were hit, three needing hospital treatment. Another onlooker was quoted as saying that having been there he did not blame the police for treating Mr Chase as dangerous. They would have been “mugs” if they had not, he said. Police still seek two other men they want, to question about the incident. They are Norman Babbington and Raymond Tangitutu, both aged 27. Mr Chase was buried on Thursday, at his birthplace, Te Teko, in the Bay of Plenty. Local police stayed away from the tangi which was attended by Mongrel Mob members from all oyer the North Island. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr K. 0. Thompson, has described calls for a public inquiry into the . death of Mr Chase as premature. A police inquiry into the shooting was continuing and should be completed in two to three Ijijypeis. . \ : ' “At that time an evaluation as to whether any person is criminally liable will be made,” he said. He said the file would then be referred to the Solicitor-General, Mr D. P. Neazor, for his assessment and comment. 'Should a S rosecution follow, any pubc inquiry which had been set up would have to adjourn till the court proceed-

ings were completed. Mr Thompson said that if, after the Solicitor-General’s advice, there was no prosecution, the whole situation would change. There would no longer be a danger of prejudicing a fair trial, and wider public disclosure of the details of the shooting could be made.

The police and the management of the Hutt Park Hotel have lodged a joiht application for an early hearing of a request for permission to close the hotel at 10 p.m. each evening, an hour earlier than at present. The hotel has had an extended licence since December, 1980, which the police have blamed for a series of violent incidents. They say that other drinkers in the Hutt Valley descend on the hotel each evening after other taverns have closed at 10 p.m. The family of Mr Chase wanted an inquiry but not a trail of vengeance, said a spokesman, Mr W. Chase, in Te Teko. Appeals bad been made to the Mongrel Mob at his nephew’s graveside on Thursday not to take the law into their own hands, Mr Chase said. -

Mr Chase said the family was not “pointing the finger” at the man who fired the fatal shot, because he had been acting on orders. The wife and daughter of Mr Chase, were probably entitled to accident compensation for his death, said the Accident Compensation Corporation’s managing director, Mr J. L. Fahy. Mrs Chase or another family member would have to apply before a definite decision could be made.