Natalie Avery and her son, Carlin, 21, and her daughter, Amy, 14. Mike Taylor was Carlin's stepfather and Amy's father.

The grieving family of a man shot dead by police in the Karangahake Gorge near Paeroa want an independent inquiry into what they describe as a "cold-blooded execution".

Mike Taylor was shot on Friday morning by police who were responding to a call from his long-time partner, Natalie Avery.

Avery and her children, Carlin, 21, and Amy, 14, say there was no need for police to shoot Taylor, as he had thrown his weapons and was walking away.

GEORGE HEARD/STUFF.CO.NZ Police said they feared for their lives before the man was shot.

They claim he put his hands in the air as he'd been instructed to do and was kneeling down when he was shot.

Avery said the pair had argued that morning and she and Amy were leaving the property - where the four lived in a caravan and huts - in a ute when the police arrived.

"They came up the drive, over the brow of the hill and Mike was in a paddock and spotted them.

GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ A man was shot by police in Paeroa today.

"He threw the slasher - it had no handle - over the top of the police car and he smashed the passenger window with the machete and then he walked away.

"He would have been at least 20 metres from the police car, hands up, bowed his knees and from there they shot him ... through the heart from behind. It was cold blooded."

Carlin, Taylor's stepson, said he was in his room by the caravan and had just got out of the shower when he heard shots.

GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Police at the scene of the shooting near Paeroa.

"I heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop - about five or six shots. I looked outside and saw a cop aiming a rifle. It was an execution."

Amy said police did not need to shoot her dad.

"They didn't even need to taser him - he'd surrendered. He had his hands in the air."

GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Police at the scene of the shooting.

Police said in a press conference on Friday that Taylor was shot dead after attacking three officers while wielding a slasher and machete.

Police said they feared for their lives before the man was shot.

The incident occurred on County Road on the western end of the Karangahake Gorge. Police were called to the address just after 8am.

The rural property is down a long gravel driveway.

Avery said she called the police on Friday morning because Taylor was acting aggressively.

She now wishes she hadn't.

"No one in my position should ever call the police for help. I have to live with it."

Avery said she and Taylor had been having an ongoing dispute with Hauraki District Council and police over access to the roadway.

"I knew it [the shooting] was going to happen some day," Avery said.

Residents said Taylor had terrorised his small community, threatening and intimidating people who crossed near the property on their walks.

They said he claimed the land, which overlooks the Karangahake River, was his land, even though it was a public road.

He ended up in court on numerous occasions for threatening behaviour and offensive language.

On one occasion he was charged with trying to run down an elderly man and his daughter, who were on a walk.

"He's threatened everybody in the neighbourhood," a local woman said. "It's a wonder somebody else hasn't been shot."

Taylor was engaged in a long-running battle over the erection of some gates across the public road, which he would put back up every time the Hauraki District Council took them down.

"The gates were taken down in the presence of police because the council workers were so scared to go up there on their own because of the history of this bloke," a second man said. "He was arrogant and brutal, with the foulest mouth.

"People would take their dog for a walk and he would say, I'll kill your dog."

Another local recounted an occasion when he was walking along the road with two friends and was confronted by the man. "He threatened to do us in, to kill us."

A near neighbour, George Cook, said he would occasionally hear yelling and arguing from the neighbouring property. And the couple would often get angry and not speak to anyone in the community.

One time they didn't speak to him for 14 months because he hadn't offered them the use of a haybaler.

On another occasion, Cook said, he saw the shot man attempting to pull down a council sign with his vehicle.

Cook said he was watching the American TV show Gunsmoke on Friday morning when he heard two or three shots, which he later realised was his neighbour being shot by police.

"He didn't like people going down there. He reckoned they left the gates open and they have horses and cattle."

Avery described the residents who spoke against Taylor as "a--holes" and said his name would be cleared as she had all the paperwork going back over several years.

"It's all a set-up, he is innocent."

She said police have "let us down badly" and her advice to anyone in her position in future would be not to call them.

DOMESTIC INCIDENT

At a press conference after the event, Waikato District Commander Bruce Bird said an officer had fired at the man while responding to a domestic incident.

"Upon arrival at the address, police officers were attacked, and then police officers shot dead a 57-year-old male at that address," Bird said.

Taylor got "very close" to the officers before being shot, he said.

Bird was not able to say how far away the police were when the fatal shot was taken, just that it was "extremely close".

It is also not known if any other shots were fired by police.

The officers were not injured in the incident and had yet to be interviewed, Bird said.

"As you can imagine, the officers involved are going through a real rollercoaster of emotion."



Taylor, who lived at the address, was known to the police.

Child, Youth and Family had been advised.

A number of knives, in addition to the slasher and machete, were found at the scene.

Taylor was given first aid but was later declared dead.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) had been advised and an investigator was expected on the scene by Friday afternoon.

FIGHTING HEARD

A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said he often heard a couple fighting on the property.

Another County Rd resident, who asked not to be named, said she was watching television when she heard sirens screaming down the road.

She was unaware of the shooting.

Two ambulances were at the scene as well as the Fire Service and police, she said.

It was a "quiet" neighbourhood, over the bridge from State Highway 2, and the first "drama" she had seen after 21 years living on the street.

Police cordoned off the scene.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police investigations at the scene were continuing.

"We are ensuring that all staff involved are receiving all the support they need. Our thoughts are also with the family of the deceased at this tragic time."

Police said both the dead man's family and the officers involved were being provided support.

POLICE SHOOTINGS

21 November 2001 Police shoot Jason Williams, 32, in Avonside Drive after a car chase

26 September 2007 Stephen Jon Bellingham, 37, shot and killed by police in Stanmore Road, Avonside.

23 January 2009 Halatau Naitoko, aged 17, shot accidentally by police during a pursuit on the North western motorway in Auckland

29 June 2009 Shayne Richard Sime, 42, shot and killed by police in Burnside.

13 July 2010 Police dog Gage shot dead by Christopher Graeme Smith in Buccleugh street, Linwood

2 May 2015 Vaughan William John Te Moananui, 33, shot dead by police in Thames

2 August 2015 David Cerven, 21 , from Slovakia, shot dead by police in Auckland

20 August 2015 Ford Hurunui, 27, shot and critically injured by police at Motueka

8 September 2015 Pera Smiler, 25, shot dead in Main Street, Upper Hutt