What happened on the night of the Ponsonby Rd shooting?
Thursday, 9 May 2024
As the hours rolled into days, a manhunt that started on a central Auckland road ended in the Broadlands region of Taupō. Katie Ham reports on what we still don’t know about the Ponsonby Rd shooter and his victim.
It was 10.15pm on Sunday night when 33-year-old Robert Horne and three friends got out of a parked car on Auckland’s Ponsonby Rd.
Just three minutes later, police had been been called to reports of gunshots being fired.
But, as the police investigation enters its fourth full day, there appear to be more questions than answers about the circumstances surrounding the incident that brought a central Auckland road to a standstill.
What prompted 31-year-old Hone Kay-Selwyn to pull a gun out of his side bag and fatally shoot Horne? Did the two know each other or was it a random attack?
Why was only Horne shot, and not the three other people he was with on Sunday night? And why did Kay-Selwyn travel to Taupō in the days following the incident?
What do we know about Sunday night and the days that followed?
Four days into the investigation into Horne’s death, police have released few details about what happened on Sunday night, but this is what we do know.
At 10.18pm, police were called to reports of a gun being fired on Ponsonby Rd.
They found Horne lying dead on the pavement, prompting a homicide investigation to be launched.
Earlier on Sunday evening, Kay-Selwyn had tried to enter a bar on Ponsonby Rd, but was denied entry because it was closing.
Kay-Selwyn was then seen “lingering” on Ponsonby Rd, towards the Richmond Rd end.
Meanwhile, at around 10.15pm, a group of four people - including Horne - got out of a parked car and walked in Kay-Selwyn’s direction.
In the space of three minutes, police then allege that “multiple shots were discharged”.
Do you know more? Email newstips@stuff.co.nz
Police say it was Kay-Selwyn who fired the shots, before walking south on Ponsonby Rd.
In the 72 hours that followed, a nationwide manhunt was launched, with police releasing two images of a man now known to be Kay-Selwyn.
On Tuesday afternoon, police found Kay-Selwyn dead at a rural address in the Broadlands area of Taupō. His death is being treated by police as unexplained.
What do we know about the Ponsonby Rd shooter?
Hone Kay-Selwyn was a father of two, and member of the Killer Beez gang. He was also the son of famous Kiwi actor and film-maker Don Selwyn, who died in 2007.
Don Selwyn (Ngāti Kurī and Te Aupōuri) won a New Zealand Order of Merit for his work and was a founding member of the New Zealand Māori Theatre Trust.
Kay-Selwyn’s family did not want to comment when approached by Stuff on Wednesday, other than to say it was a “very hard time” for the family.
A now deleted social media message posted by Kay-Selwyn’s partner said that she had been inundated by messages “concerning Hone’s actions last night in Ponsonby”.
She asked for space to process the “tragedy”. She said she was “deeply sorry” and felt a “great sense of shame about the situation”.
Kay-Selwyn had been before the courts twice before - once on a charge of assault, and the second for breaching bail.
Court documents released to Stuff say Kay-Selwyn was outside Taupō’s Sin City strip club at about 1.40am on February 1, 2020 when he sucker punched an unknown person to the body and head without warning.
What do we know about the victim?
Robert Sidney Horne has been remembered as a “man with a big heart”.
Horne’s family didn’t want to comment, but a long-time colleague told Stuff he has a “good heart” that “a lot of people could take advantage of”.
“He was a very, very kind person. He has a big heart. When he wants to help you, when he wants to do something for you, it’s 100% or nothing. That summarises Rob,” the colleague, who did not want to be named, said.
The colleague said Horne worked hard to bring his business on track after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Horne grew up in Waikato's Te Awamutu and spent about seven years in Australia before he moved back to New Zealand.
A family friend, speaking to Stuff on the condition of anonymity, said Horne always liked the country life.
The friend said Horne had a partner and the pair were planning to have children. “They were having a good time together travelling the world.”
He was described as an “outdoor person” who loved hiking, camping and water sports.