POT SHOT PRODUCER: SARAH HALL REPORTER: KAREN PICKERSGILL Karen Intro: When a Bay of Plenty woodcutter spotted two dope-growers on the family farm last summer, he did what many farmers would do: grabbed a rifle and went to investigate. But it would prove to be a fatal mistake. Brendon MacDonald fired what he says were three warning shots, except the third struck one of the men in the back as he was running away, and killed him. The 27-year old says he only ever meant his gunfire to scare the intruders, that he never meant to hurt anyone. But the police saw it differently and charged him with murder. KEN MacDONALD: He was doing his wood, splitting it, chopping it up. Next thing he's back flat tack running back to the house to tell me there's a couple of guys over there on this hillside, doing dope. All hell broke loose then. I had total faith in him doing the right thing. You just don't think of anything going wrong. He put the first shot into the ground round about this area, and he put a second shot into the ground. It was after that when we heard the third shot. He said “Dad, get the police and the ambulance, I've hit a guy.” That was the real bad bit, when the guy died, to hear that the guy had died. KAREN: Life has been lonely for Ken and Glenys MacDonald, since what Ken calls "that horrible day" 15 months ago at their home in the backblocks of Paengaroa. GLENYS MacDONALD: He shouldn't be in jail, it was an accident. It wasn't deliberate. If these guys had not been there this would never have happened! KAREN: It's their son Brendon MacDonald who shot and killed Grant Bourne, one of two intruders he spotted tending cannabis on the family farm. A tragedy for the Bourne family, and for the MacDonalds whose son is now behind bars, a convicted killer doing time for manslaughter. (TO CAM) Folk round here were shocked at the shooting, but there wasn't a lot of sympathy for the victim. As you'll see there's a background to this killing. Farmers fed up with dope growers trespassing on their land, taking advantage of their isolation, endangering their lives and their livelihoods. (V/O): The MacDonalds have always lived in the area. They have a daughter in Australia, but Brendon is their eldest and the only son. They've been at their small farm in Maniatutu Road for nearly 13 years, a home they built themselves. KEN MacDONALD: At least it’s ours. We don't owe anyone anything. We haven't got anything but what we have got is ours. KAREN (V/O): The family have 45 acres here. It's tough, rugged country, like the man who owns it. Ken works off-farm, long days long-haul truck driving. But with Brendon now absent, more of the farm work is falling on his shoulders. It's ten years since his son left school, and he gave him some land of his own, five acres, including a hillside to clear. KEN MacDONALD: He was 17 at the time and I said to him, ‘There are mate, put that in pines over there. By the time you're 40 you'll have a pocketful of money.’ And here we are ten years later, not a single pine tree planted. But hey, that’s kids today, isn't it? KAREN (V/O): The young MacDonald did fell hundreds of wattle trees, clearing and chopping and began from nothing, his own firewood business. KEN MacDONALD: He's a good kid, he was doing things fairly right. He could've had a bit bolder future in the outside world, but he was quite happy here. KAREN (V/O): The day of the shooting, January 14th last year, Brendon was up at his wood heap. He'd spent a couple of hours helping a neighbour try to fix a water pump. Around 2.30, from the top of the hill, he spotted two men in the gully pulling plants, and ran back to the house to tell his Dad. (I/V): Was he pretty angry? KEN MacDONALD: He was, he was worked up, yeah because we just don't have dope here. And for someone to be growing dope that close to home, that's not on. KAREN (V/O): Inside the house, MacDonald grabbed the key to the gun cabinet and ran back up the track with a .308, a powerful hunting rifle and four rounds of ammunition. (I/V) What was he going to do, why did he grab the gun in the first place? KEN MacDONALD: I would say it would be to intimidate. Someone would see a guy with a gun and think, hell lets get the hell out of here. That would be more his line of thinking. KAREN: And were you worried about that? Is that he country way? KEN MacDONALD: No, no, at the time it didn't mean anything because you know, we live with guns here. KAREN (V/O): Hiding out in the gully were the two growers, Lyle Robson and Grant Bourne, local men known to Brendon. The pair had been five hours on the property, tending their plants, and smoking six joints between them. Robson would later tell police, they were wasted. Brendon ran on ahead of his father. KEN MacDONALD: I couldn't see ’cause this was all big trees along here. I couldn't see Ben at all. From the first time I saw him, that was the only time I saw him. KAREN: That's when he was pointing? KEN MacDONALD: He was pointing down to say they're in there. BRENDON MacDONALD: I pointed out to him where all the noise was coming from, and that's when he said “Right you bastards, get out of there”, and that's when I fired one shot into the ground. POLICEMAN: Why did you do that? BRENDON MacDONALD: Hopefully to make them come out and if they had weapons that they wouldn't shoot at us. KAREN (V/O): This is Brendon MacDonald in a police interview three hours after the shooting. POLICEMAN: Did they move? Did they do anything, did you see them run off? BRENDON MacDONALD: No, not on that. So I fired one more shot into the ground, and one guy bolted, like he was crashing through the scrub like a pig. He was running for his life. KEN MacDONALD: Yeah it was through here that I would have seen this guy and I would have been back above that high tree, that sort of region, where I saw this guy for a step and a bit, just disappear over this hillside. KAREN: Making a run for it? KEN MacDONALD: Yeah, he was going down here. KAREN (V/O): That man was Grant Bourne. His mate, Robson, wouldn't come on camera, but told us while he wanted to lay low, Grant was panicking. They thought both MacDonald's were armed. It was Bourne who broke cover and fled for the boundary fence line towards the neighbouring farm. BRENDON MacDONALD: Yeah I was following him saying “Stop, stop,” but he wouldn't. POLICEMAN: He wouldn't stop. And so you fired the third shot? BRENDON MacDONALD: Yeah. POLICEMAN: And was that just to warn him off was it? What was that for? BRENDAN MacDONALD: Yeah just more of a warning really, like get the fuck off our place, I don't want cannabis growers here. KEN MacDCONALD: The guy had jumped over that angle post, the stay on that angle post, over into the big trees. And Ben had thought, the hill goes down on that fairly sharp angle and then it drops really steep, and Ben had thought he'd gone over the hill and gone, so he swung the rifle round and said, ‘Well go then’, because he was trying to get him to stop. BRENDON MacDONALD: I turned around and started to walk back and I heard him cry out. POLICEMAN: You thought he was gone? BRENDON MacDONALD: Yeah I thought he was out of there, history, so I ran back down and saw him standing there with blood all over his arm and over his shoulder. KEN MacDONALD: Then he came flying back up the hill, ‘Dad, get the police and ambulance, I've hit a guy.’ KAREN (V/O): As Ken raced to the house to dial 111, Brendan ran back to Grant Bourne but it was too late. The 36-year old was dead, his right lung shredded by a bullet that'd gone right through him. BRENDON: I saw Mum first. She was out walking towards where I was coming from. POLICEMAN: And what did you say to her? Did you say anything to her? What did you say? BRENDON MacDONALD: I said it looks like I'll be going to jail for something. As soon as I saw the poor bastard. POLICEMAN: Did you tell Mum that he was dead? GLENYS MacDONALD: My mind just went numb, my heart was racing and I just, I went numb. KEN MacDONALD: The poor little bugger he came in there, he couldn't stand, he couldn't sit, crying from the reality of what's actually happened, saying ‘Oh God I'm going to jail,’ and that sort of carry on. I was the same, you couldn't sit, you couldn't stand, you didn't know whether you wanted to be sick. It was just one hell of a horrible feeling. KAREN (V/O): And it was about to get worse. Brendon found himself charged with murder. (TO CAM) The way police told it in court the shooting was intentional, deliberate. Brendon MacDonald wanted a confrontation. Why else, they asked, when he found the plants didn't he just tear them out, turn a blind eye even, or call in the law? And why, when he spotted the two growers in the gully, did the young woodcutter head straight for the gun cabinet? (I/V): If he only wanted to scare them, again, why did he grab the most powerful weapon in the cabinet? KEN MacDONALD: Because he thought that was the only firearm that had any ammunition to it. That's why he chose that one. And besides that as he said, it makes a big bang, which it does. SERGEANT JOHN MILLS: I believe he got into that hunting mode where he tracked him, he flushed him, he ran after him. KAREN: Sergeant John Mills investigated the shooting and laid the murder charge. SGT JOHN MILLS. The defence said that they believe the shot was fired blind from the hip. I, and the Crown case was that was a deliberate shot, sighted through the scope, hitting him square between the shoulder blades. KAREN: You think Brendan McDonald lined Grant Bourne up and let rip? SGT JOHN MILLS: Yes. KAREN: Mills says the 27-year old was an experienced gun user and knew exactly the effects of firing a 308. In MacDonald’s own words, it's a big gun, not a toy. SGT JOHN MILLS: He's an experienced hunter, and better than average shot I think the comment was made in court. I'd say it was a very good shot myself. POLICEMAN: That the last shot that hit him, why did you pull the trigger on that occasion? BRENDON MacDONALD: I really can't say. POLICEMAN: You just wanted to frighten him off? You just wanted to make sure he went? Was that the reason, or was there another reason? BRENDON MacDONALD: No, I wasn't trying to kill him or anything. I don't know, it was nearly an automatic reaction, but I wasn't aiming for him. POLICEMAN: No? You didn't want to hit him? BRENDON MacDONALD: No, I wanted him to stop and come back, not die. COURT USHER: Brendan John McDonald, before the court. KAREN (V/O): Brendan MacDonald went to trial for murder, twice. The first ended in a hung jury. The second jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter. The shy woodcutter, who'd never been in trouble with the law before, was sentenced to three years in prison. His jailing has upset many in this tiny close-knit community, people who feel vulnerable and angry. Farmers who've been ripping cleverly hidden cannabis plots out of their land for years, often fearing retaliation from the growers. In the weeks after the shooting, local farmers met en masse in Paengaroa to show their solidarity and to lobby for more power to look after their properties. MURRAY TOMS: Everybody felt very sorry for the MacDonald family. It could have happened to anybody. KAREN (V/O): Murray Toms, a neighbour of the McDonalds had his mailbox shot up by growers after his grazing sheep destroyed cannabis planted on his farm. He tells of farmers stumbling across tripwires and booby traps, protecting plots in quiet corners of their properties. MURRAY TOMS: Fish hooks strung on lines in the bush, razor blades. I have been shown a place where they had a shotgun nailed to the tree and a piece of fine wire across the track that would activate the shotgun. KAREN: You can absolutely understand why Brendon did what he did? MURRAY TOMS: Oh easy yes. Could've happened to anybody. And I think he probably reacted how most people would react. There's no teeth in the trespass laws. You can't rely on that. You're on your own when it happens. SGT JOHN MILLS: Everyone's got to remember that fatal force can only be used in self defence or defence of another person. It can't be used in defence of property. KAREN: Did this guy deserve to die? KEN MacDONALD: No, definitely not. Hell no. That's too much to pay. Even Ben said that, that was his own words that night when he came back, ‘That's too much to pay,’ when the guy died. He didn't want that at all. KAREN: I know you've got a pretty low opinion of dope growers, but this wasn't meant to happen? KEN MacDONALD: God no. I'd certainly say to anyone else out there with a similar problem that we've had, that we've been through here, for Christ sake leave the guns at home man. Just block the road, get the law out, but leave your guns at home, for Christ's sake. KAREN (V/O): Grant Bourne's family will never see their son again. And the MacDonald's have a long wait before they see their boy home. This used to be one of his jobs on the farm, burning off branches from trees he'd felled for firewood. GLENYS MacDONALD: He'll be missing the freedom that he had here. It’s just such an open space here and it was the things he loved. He could just get out and do his own thing. You know he used to come in and have several cups of coffee, but we'd talk and he's just not here now, and it's quiet. Very quiet. Just me and the dog. KAREN (V/O): Locals used to come up to the McDonald's to collect firewood by the trailer and the truckload. It was a nice little earner. But these days, with Brendon gone, it's all Ken can manage to keep the home fires burning. KEN MacDONALD: Nah, this is a young man's game. KAREN (V/O): When Brendon MacDonald ran off with a rifle last summer, he may well have been doing what any other landowner would've done. But now two families are without their sons. They're all paying the price. KEN MacDONALD: At the end of the day a man's died and we're prepared for some sort of payment, but when you get a charge like that laid on…I wouldn't call it an injustice because of what has happened, but it's a hard justice.