Window smashed, nail gun fired during quarrel between cousins in Hamilton

Oct 22, 2023

A drunken Hamilton East man resorted to smashing his way into a house when his cousin confiscated his car keys to stop him from driving.

And after shattering a window, Gabriel Minden Banks grabbed a nail gun and fired it through the gap he had created.

Banks, 21, faced charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, wilful damage and common assault when he appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Friday for what his counsel Wayne Dollimore described as a "ridiculous" incident in the early hours of December 4 last year.

That incident began at 2.45am at his cousin's house in Cambridge Rd. Banks had been drinking and his cousin, in an attempt to stop him from driving off, had grabbed the keys to his car. Banks responded by striking his cousin in the face with an open palm.

The cousin walked away, went into the house and locked the door behind him. Incensed, Banks went around the house banging on windows and demanding entry.

Then he obtained a crowbar and attempted to force open his cousin's bedroom window.

He succeeded, but the cousin managed to grab the crowbar off him and shut the window again.

However part of the bedroom curtain was left hanging outside the window. Banks wrapped his fist in it and smashed a hole in the window.

Shortly afterward Banks went to his car and obtained a nail gun, which he fired through the hole he had created in the window. It is not known where the projectile ended up, but it did not hit the cousin or anyone else.

The cousin had called the police and had attempted to calm Banks down. Although the summary of facts does not record it, Banks must have obtained the car keys, because he drove off soon after.

He was later found by the police and arrested.

The cousin suffered a swollen left eye from being hit. It cost $300 for a replacement window, and this was something Banks subsequently forked out for as part of his efforts to make amends.

Those amends also included a restorative justice conference with his cousin, and participation in counselling through the Care NZ programme.

Dollimore said Banks had discharged the nail gun "nowhere near anyone ... but it was a ridiculous thing to do."

Banks had never been in trouble with the law previously, and he had a supportive employer in the construction industry who was willing to support him through whatever penalty he faced.

That penalty, Judge Merelina Burnett deemed, was 55 hours of community work.