It was Sunday afternoon when Rajiv Raja received a call from his cousin Hitesh Lal, offering him a bottle of whiskey, which he had just purchased.

The same fateful night, 42-year-old Fijian, Hitesh Lal, was shot dead by New Zealand Police in Papatoetoe, Auckland, as they attended to a call about a machete-wielding man.

“I told him to keep the whiskey for later because of the lockdown and I could not pick it up,” recalled Mr Raja.

“He sounded fine, there was nothing in his voice that would suggest that he was going to go on a rampage.”

He was shocked when he was told of the news by his mother on Tuesday morning.

Mr Raja spoke to Hitesh’s partner, who was staying with him.

“I was informed that he had been drinking alcohol when he called Fiji and had arguments with family members,” he said.

According to Mr Raja, Mr Lal had invested a certain amount of money on land in Ba, where he was from, however, there had been some legal battle among family members regarding the land.

“I gathered from the partner that after the heated phone call, he went to bed only to get up feeling agitated,” he said.

“He is then said to have grabbed his machete and went outside. He was angry and he was smashing and damaging anything in front of him including cars, windows and poles.”

Mr Raja said the neighbours had called the cops.

According to the New Zealand media, Mr Lal failed to adhere to Police warning to put the machete down.

New Zealand Police are investigating the matter.

According to family members, Hitesh Lal came to New Zealand in 1995 and then went to Australia to work in the mines in Perth before returning to New Zealand.

Edited by Ivamere Nataro

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