“You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

That - or words to that effect - is what Matu Reid said to his partner back in 2021 after he’d pushed her off a chair, thrown an object at her head, kicked her in the stomach - sending her flying backwards - stood over her, and grabbed her throat for about 10 seconds. During which time she couldn’t breathe.

Well, we now know exactly what he’s capable of. Or was capable of. Because yesterday morning, he turned up at the building site in central Auckland where he’d been working and went on the rampage with a shotgun.

Two people at the site lost their lives and others - including a police officer - are in hospital with injuries. Reid himself died, as well. You might have heard the Police Commissioner saying this morning that the police officer has quite a road ahead in terms of recovery.

You might have also heard the Police Commissioner saying that he hasn't read the sentencing notes from when this guy got home detention for the assault on his partner.

Which I couldn’t believe. I don't know who’s advising the Commissioner but he should find someone else. Because, as soon as I heard yesterday that the person responsible for this was on home detention, I knew there’d be a truckload of questions about it.

So Matu Reid was on home detention, wearing an ankle bracelet, and allowed to leave home to go to work. And it was the building site where he’d been working before the shootings yesterday.

It seems something may have happened in relation to his work there that caused him to do what he did yesterday. But we’ll find out more about that as all the investigations contionue.

But what we do know, is that this guy should never have been on home detention and should never have been allowed to come and go to work. Well, that’s what I think anyway.

Because this was a very serious assault on his partner we’re talking about, back in 2021.

He pushed her off a chair, threw something at her head, kicked and strangled her. She couldn’t breathe for 10 seconds. And that was while he was already under supervision for another assault a year before.

And even before attacking her, he threatened to “take out” her and her family.

So he ends up in court and Judge Stephen Bonnar KC starts discounting the sentence left, right and centre.

The starting point was three years in jail. Twenty-five percent came off for a guilty plea. Another nine months was taken-off for background factors - his upbringing, and the fact he had to run away from home at a young age. His sense of remorse was another thing considered by the judge, as well. Another five months came off because of the time he’d already spent in custody.

So that got him down to 13 months. And once you get below 24 months. the judge has the option of home detention.

Which is nuts, isn’t it? Because, even once all the factors like terrible upbringing and all that are taken into account and someone is still considered to be a candidate for serving prison time, if it gets down to less than two years, then the judge has some discretion.

And, in the case of this guy, the judge gave him home detention because “I do not want to send a young man like you, with a limited history, to prison. I think that could be counterproductive and actually set you down the wrong path.”

And so he walked out of court with a five-month home detention sentence.

This was a guy who offended while he was already under supervision for a violent crime the year before; strangled someone; threatened to "take out” his victim and her family; and told his victim she didn’t know what he was capable of.

Now we all know what he was capable of.