The bullet and the relationship it could not kill

The remarkable story of Hemi Tahuri and Missy Parata

Words cannot describe the raw emotion heard in the High Court at Dunedin on Wednesday morning.

That came from Missy Parata, who spoke of the moment when her high school sweetheart was shot.

Nine months on, and Hemi Tahuri, 25, is continuing his long journey of recovery in Christchurch, while the man who shot him, Krishan Dick-Karetai, has been jailed for six years and 11 months.

While I’ll refrain from commenting on that sentence, I would note that Dick-Karetai will be a free man long before Tahuri makes a full recovery, if at all.

That’s because he was shot in the head with a .22, and given just a 1% chance of survival by the surgeons, after he was transported to intensive care in Christchurch.

“I literally said to the universe that if they gave me him back, I would do anything to see him live his life again.”

That .22 bullet remains in the back Hemi Robin Toko Tahuri’s skull, after he was shot between the eyes by a jealous former partner of Parata in the coastal Otago town of Karitane on October 15.

“I am just so grateful he is here. I just don’t want to waste another minute, because I am so scared to lose him.”

She held Tahuri in his lap when his eyes were rolling back, as the first aid training kicked in, while she waited the 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at their Karitane home.

“It felt like hours, days and months.”

Parata, also 25, has remained by her partner’s side ever since, sharing some of the moments of Tahuri’s rehabilitation over TikTok.

“Don’t get me started on those TikToks,” Tahuri said.

The pair first met at Ashburton College in 2011.

“I was so drawn to him, I didn’t care about anybody else in the whole world.”

The pair had what Parata calls a ‘‘beautiful friendship’’, and when they were not in a relationship during those ten years they were always close.

“We have such a history, we can never be apart.”

The couple’s long-term goal was to get a house and focus on Tahuri’s rehabilitation in Christchurch, before they embark on plans to “enjoy the world”.

“Because we have both been given a second chance to change and relive our lives the way we want to.”

Parata, who is staying in Christchurch with Tahuri’s family while she supports his rehabilitation, had ended the Dunedin job she loved as a youth justice worker.

“I told them I am not reliable . . . Hemi comes first.”

She refused to believe he would die, pleading with him in intensive care to “stay with me”.

“We kept being told he would have hours [to live].”

One of those moments occurred when his head wound started to bleed, and Parata was told his brain was about to shut down.

“But Hemi’s left hand reached out behind my back, and started to rub me.”

She knew then that everything would be okay.

Parata would massage his body every day, sometimes for hours, despite being told he was unlikely to walk again, due to the brain injury.

But Tahuri defied those predictions, and in December he gradually moved his legs with the help of her massages.

“He slept for a whole day after taking one step.”

While his speech remained slurred, he was able to hold conversations and his memory – including on that fateful day – had returned.

The shooting of Hemi Tahuri

“It is clear from the medical records that Mr Tahuri narrowly avoided death,” Justice Rachel Dunningham said in the High Court at Dunedin on Wednesday.

“Indeed, I consider this is about as close to murder as a charge of attempted murder can be.”

It was in that courthouse, about a half an hour drive south from Karitane, where Dick-Karitai was sentenced to six years and 11 months’ jail, on a charge of attempted murder, which has a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.

Dick-Karetai knew both Tahuri and Parata, who had been in a long-term relationship with Tahuri until a brief separation in 2020.

That was when Dick-Karetai and Parata had a brief relationship, but when that ended he struggled to move on, threatening self-harm if she ended contact with him.

If she didn’t reply to his message, or disclose her location on social media he would bombard her with messages and calls.

Before the shooting, police had attended four family harm call-outs involving Dick-Karetai, who was trespassed from the couple’s home and twice breached that order.

His jealousy escalated on the day of the shooting, with the court hearing that Dick-Karetai sent Parata 35 abusive messages, and phoned her 33 times that morning.

He continued to bombard her with calls and messages, including one that said: “You’re a liar and your probably with the fat c*** now”.

Parata replied:

“I don’t want you and I don’t want you to ever try and message or call me. You need to leave me alone.”

He didn’t. Dick-Karetai called her a further 26 times, before Parata responded, telling him to stop calling her.

Dick-Karetai then arrived at their home in Karitane, repeatedly tooting the horn to get Parata to come outside. Instead she remained inside and called the police, who advised her to stay inside and lock the door.

Tahuri, who had been outside mowing lawns, talked to Dick-Karetai before going inside his house. The couple were not aware that when Dick-Karetai approached their locked glass door he had a .22 behind his back.

“It was aimed for Hemi, and it was meant for Hemi,” Parata told Stuff of the shooting.

He demanded Parata come outside, but Tahuri said she would not. That’s when Dick-Karetai raised the gun and fired the single shot, hitting Tahuri in the forehead.

“I will never ever get the sound of the gunshot from my head,” Parata told the court.

She held his head in her lap as blood streamed from the bullet wound, and watched as the colour drained from his face and his eyes rolled backwards.

“I wailed at the top of my lungs trying to get him back to me,” she said in her victim impact statement.

She told the court that she saw Dick-Karetai smirking after the shooting as if he had achieved something.

She told Dick-Karetai that the shooting was “as if you shot me too”.

“If [his] heart stopped . . . mine would too.”

Dick-Karetai was arrested a short time after the incident, after initially fleeing the scene in his white Subaru.

At his sentencing, Tahuri’s father turned to face the man who shot his son, telling him he was a coward and a criminal.

“You failed. Our son proved to you what a real man should be – he took a bullet for his [partner].”

Thanks for reading.