{"id":16303,"date":"2026-01-15T12:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16303"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:42:20","slug":"he-lost-his-spark-for-life-benjamin-timmins-sister-speaks-out-after-waitarere-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16303","title":{"rendered":"‘He lost his spark for life’: Benjamin Timmins’ sister speaks out after Wait\u0101rere shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sister of a man who died after a shooting in Wait\u0101rere Beach in Horowhenua says her brother is more than just his criminal history.<\/p>\n

\"Rach<\/p>\n

Rach O’Grady and Benjamin Harry Timmins in photos taken in 1986 and 2025.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Facebook\/ Rach O’Grady<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A 46-year-old woman and two males aged 17 and 21 –\u00a0remain critically wounded in Wellington Hospital<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A young girl who was at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday is being cared for by family.<\/p>\n

Police are not looking for anyone else.<\/p>\n

Rach O’Grady has identified her older brother, Benjamin Harry Timmins, 60, as the deceased, calling him a “loved friend, father, and brother. Trickster, funny fella, all round solid gold”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to RNZ on Thursday, she said she understood her brother’s body was being removed from the house on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In life, she remembered him as funny, intelligent, a staunch protector and sometimes strict parent.<\/p>\n

In his 20s he joined the Territorial Force – now known as the Army Reserve Force – “to keep people safe, to protect, to ensure that he had a purpose in his life”, she said.<\/p>\n

In more recent years his work had been caring for his children and working on the farm on Wait\u0101rere Beach Road, which had cows, sheep and horses, and a cattery in which they bred Ragdolls.<\/p>\n

“He was a carer,” O’Grady said.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s events did not reflect the brother she knew, she said, and had left the family asking, “What happened to him?”<\/p>\n

Amid speculation online, she wanted to make clear he did not have gang affiliations, and she was worried his past brushes with the law on cannabis and firearms offences painted a picture of a different person to the man she knew.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Timmins was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, and then convicted again in 2019, on three charges of cultivation of cannabis, unlawful possession of ammunition and theft.<\/p>\n

An appeal in 2024 was partly successful, with the conviction for unlawful possession of ammunition set aside.<\/p>\n

This morning, RNZ reported\u00a0police seized a dismantled a gun, parts and ammunition<\/a>\u00a0from the property a few hours before returning to find a Timmins dead and three others with gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n

\"Benjamin<\/p>\n

Benjamin Timmins\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Supplied<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Police also this morning confirmed they responded to a family harm-related incident at the property last Friday. One person was arrested and charged with assault on a person in a family relationship and had been scheduled to appear in court on 14 January.<\/p>\n

The most recent events at the house were a failing of the mental health system, O’Grady said.<\/p>\n

Her brother had changed in the past few years, becoming “quiet, withdrawn. He lost his spark for life”.<\/p>\n

“Men’s mental health should never be ignored, because when a man breaks, it’s not just the man who breaks, it’s his families, the family he comes from, the family he’s created. Men’s mental health has been so ignored.”<\/p>\n

She had last seen her brother at the weekend, and had spoken to him on the phone that night. She said one of his last comments to her was: “Make sure my story gets out.”<\/p>\n

The family still had questions about what exactly had happened, and she hoped the police investigation would bring those answers.<\/p>\n

“Ben is not the person that he is going to be portrayed as. He is not his criminal history.”<\/p>\n

Manawat\u016b area commander Inspector Ross Grantham said the scene examination could extend into the weekend.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to guard the scene and the public within the community can expect to see a more heavy police presence there than they normally would,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s like most small communities in New Zealand, everybody knows everybody or somebody knows somebody and so it will have a very wide impact on that community and the community within the Horowhenua.”<\/p>\n

Police were not seeking anyone else.<\/p>\n

“Family harm is a very wide spectrum and if this is indeed family harm, then it is most certainly at the top end of that spectrum,” he said. “That is terribly, terribly sad.”<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sister of a man who died after a shooting in Wait\u0101rere Beach in Horowhenua says her brother is more than just his criminal history. Rach O’Grady and Benjamin Harry Timmins in photos taken in 1986 and 2025.\u00a0Photo:\u00a0Facebook\/ Rach O’Grady A 46-year-old woman and two males aged 17 and 21 –\u00a0remain critically wounded in Wellington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16305,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303\/revisions\/16305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}