Man involved in shooting incident in Tuapa, Niue found guilty
A man from Hakupu involved in a shooting incident at Tuapa has been found guilty by the Niue High court.
Chief Judge Craig Coxhead delivered his decision last Thursday 14th March 2019 .
The incident happened on Saturday night 9th June 2018 which started with an altercation between two men at the Alofi rugby club.
This was then followed by a car chase from Alofi to Tuapa where the shooting incident took place.
Chief Judge Craig Coxhead found the man guilty to charges relating to possession and firing of firearms and traffic offences.
After considering the evidence presented in court lastweek, the Judge stated it was clear that there was a dispute between the two men and it was serious enough to cause the man from Hakupu to follow the other man to Tuapa where the matter escalated.
The Judge said that the man from Tuapa was wounded on the left side of his body from the gunshots fired by the man from Hakupu.
During the trial the court heard that a total of three gun shots were fired by him that night while the man from Hakupu fired 4 gunshots at him.
Both were injured including a third person who was in the vehicle with the man from Hakupu.
A prison sentence was not given by the Judge who instead handed down a community based sentence of 12 months.
The Judge also stated that the man in Tuapa was clearly scared not only for himself but also for his family adding that he found his self defense was reasonable and found him not guilty on all counts.
Mitigating factors were presented by the man’s lawyer who told the Chief Judge that the man has a partner and two children to look after and a prison sentence would bring them financial difficulties.
The lawyer told the court that there’s also been reconciliation between the two families and the village communities of Hakupu and Tuapa.
The man also has to pay a fine of 300 dollars for the traffic offences and failing to have registration for the possession of firearms.
