Jerrim Toms died after being shot by police officers near Pohuehue in Auckland.

The family of a man shot dead by police say the father-to-be was grappling with bi-polar disorder.

Jerrim Toms, 29, of Onehunga in Auckland, was shot on State Highway 1 near Pohuehue in north Auckland on March 31 after allegedly threatening officers with a machete.

His family say he was shot at more than 12 times by police, with four bullets hitting him, one of those in the back.

MORNING REPORT/RNZ The family of an Auckland man killed by the police say two officers fired 12 shots, hitting him four times. It's about two weeks since Jerrim Toms died on State Highway 1 north of Auckland. The family say the information given to them so far by the police raise more questions than answers about what happened. They've spoken exclusively to RNZ reporter Laura Tupou. She discusses the details of the story with Guyon Espiner.

Five weeks before the shooting, Toms had been hospitalised for three days and treated for bipolar disorder, his family told RNZ. At the time he had a major fear of police and being jailed.

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The family told RNZ that Toms was not his normal self after he was discharged. He was on prescribed medication.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF A forensic team collects evidence from Jerrim Toms' car at the scene of his fatal shooting by police.

They also believe recreational drugs may have influenced his mental state on the night of the shooting.

In response to the family's comments, Detective Inspector John Sutton said Toms had a machete at the time and he was shot "while close to police".

"Whilst initial indications are that drugs may be a factor, it is unclear what led Jerrim to behave in this manner," Sutton said.

"We are still waiting on toxicology results and these are not expected for several weeks."

Further details of how Jerrim died would not be released until police had consulted with the Coroner.

Mental health advocate Mike King called the incident another example of the need for a government inquiry into the mental health system announced in January.



"It's a mental health system that was inherited from the previous government, who didn't put enough resources into helping those on the frontline, and the police have become the default agency," King said.



"This is just further evidence that an inquiry into our mental health system was desperately needed, so we can find out where those shortcomings really are."

Neither police nor frontline mental health teams were adequately resourced to respond to mental health patients, King said.



"That's why this new government inquiry is hopefully going to go a long way toward preventing this in the future, but it's going to take time."



The inquiry into mental health and addiction will be chaired by former Health and Disability Commissioner professor Ron Paterson, and will report back to the government by the end of October.

Graeme Moyle, whose older brother, Colin Moyle, was bludgeoned to death in his Auckland home by psychiatric patient Matthew Ahlquist in 2007, has also commented on the shooting.



"This tragedy can be directly related to inadequate mental health resources," Moyle said.



"The fact that the Police responded to over 40,000 mental health related incidents last year reflects this."



A senior police officer who spoke to Stuff on condition of anonymity, said the consensus in the force was that the officers had acted appropriately in the situation.



"If someone's running at you with a machete, and you fear for your own life, the best way to stop them is with a firearm," the senior officer said.

"You've got no guarantee that a Taser is going to stop them or even slow them down."



The officer said critics who suggested police could have used a Taser, or shot Toms in the arm or leg, didn't have a realistic idea of their training.



"When they train us they teach us to go for centre mass, which is the chest.

"If someone was advancing on me I'd try and put two shots in the chest, and if they kept advancing they'd get another two."

Police were trained to keep shooting until the person advancing on them went down, he said.

Jerrim and his pregnant German partner were expecting their first child together when he was killed at Easter.

Police had also visited Jerrim Toms' house to impound his motorcycle days before officers fatally shot him, according to a neighbour.

A man who lives nearby said he wasn't home on the Saturday night Jerrim Toms was fatally shot by police.

But he recalled a noisy incident at Toms' house midweek, early in the morning.

"A motorbike was taken away by the police basically. Impounded, I'm presuming," he said.

First he awoke to the sound of the police helicopter overhead. Then someone arrived at high speed on a motorbike - possibly Toms - before police officers and a tow truck turned up.

"I was woken up by the police helicopter, I could hear it for quite a while," he said.

"I was woken up by an impound truck taking the motorbike, wheeling the motorbike onto the back of the truck, and the police were there, and a lady came out from the house there, I presume that's the mother. She said, 'Do you have to take that?' and they said, 'Yes.'"

Asked to confirm this incident, a police spokesperson said: "Our investigation is ongoing and we are not commenting on specific details."

HOW THE SHOOTING UNFOLDED

In the early hours of Saturday, March 31, police received a call-out to Tom's Onehunga home after a woman, who knew him, reported him acting erratically.

RNZ have reported that woman was Toms' mother, who had called mental health services fearing her son was having a bi-polar episode and that he needed help. She was then advised to call police.

Officers went to the address, but Toms had left by the time they arrived. The family gave police his car registration details.

Shortly afterward, a rural police officer noticed a car parked at the side of the road with its hazard lights on near Topuni on the Hibiscus Coast.

The officer pulled in behind the car, but it quickly drove off, before stopping again.

Toms then got out of his vehicle and came around to the driver's door of the police car, "wielding a machete and threatening the officer", police Superintendent Tusha Penny said.

Toms then got back in his car and headed south on State Highway 1 towards Puhoi, driving at speeds of up to 150kmh, at times with its lights off, she said.

His car was spiked near Mahurangi West Rd about 3.50am.

"The first officers got out of their patrol car and the driver from the other car came towards them with a machete," Penny said.

"It is at this point that police fired shots."

RNZ quoted family members as saying police officers told them "upwards of 12 shots" were fired and four bullets hit Tom's body: one to his left hand, two in his chest, and one to his lower back.