The man at the centre of a police stand-off in Porirua barricaded himself into the upper storey of a Kokiri Crescent home, before he was found dead, police say.
Officers had been negotiating with the man since 10am yesterday, after a police dog, named Gazza, was shot and killed.
An officer was also injured jumping from the second storey of a house while trying to escape the gunman.
At a media conference this afternoon, Wellington District Commander Superintendent Sam Hoyle said the man had been responding to police negotiations during most of the siege, but stopped communicating shortly before midnight.
They also used tear gas overnight to try to get him out of the property, but no shots were fired by the police, he said.
"I can confirm that about 11am we entered the property in Kokiri Crescent, and there located the deceased who we believe to be Mr Pita Rangi Tekira."
"We entered the lower level of the house and confirmed that Mr Tekira had put some effort into barricading himself into an upper level of the house. Using a remote control camera we were able to confirm that he was in fact in an upper room in the house.
"He was alone in that room and there was a firearm present in that room with him. I can't speak to the cause of his death - that's a matter we will report to the coroner."
Mr Hoyle said the outcome was not what police had wanted.
"What we wanted was for him to come out and for everyone to leave safely and no one else to get hurt ... Our negotiators worked tirelessly throughout the night in an attempt to get a peaceful ending to this event, but unfortunately that didn't occur."
Mr Hoyle said the police investigation was far from over.
"We need to investigate a number of events over the last few weeks and piece all of that together for both the coroner and any criminal inquiries."
He said methamphetamine was rumoured to be involved, but he could not confirm whether those rumours were true at this stage.
"It's one of those things we will be looking at in the next few days."
Mr Hoyle said he acknowledged the impact the events had on residents in Waitangirua.
"Particularly those people of Kokiri Crescent who I know have been hugely put out by the events of the last 24 hours, some haven't been able to go to their homes and others have been hugely inconvenienced."
Jen Hebden was outside the cordon today waiting to return to her house.
She said the last two days had taken a toll on the community.
"It definitely took a toll on us I think and the whole street, we uplifted our lives pretty much within minutes but we definitely feel for the family and especially for the neighbours."
Porirua mayor Nick Leggett agreed the events had been traumatic for the people of Waitangirua.
Porirua mayor Nick Leggett Photo: RNZ / Adriana Weber
"The fact that this is now over allows people to come together and talk about what's happened and start the healing process, because this is a disruptor and it affects families," he said.
"And there's a real mixture of people, of ages, in Kokiri Crescent and those people have to go back to that street and get back to their lives."
Mr Tekira was facing charges including dishonesty, driving and violent offending, and had removed his electronic monitoring bracelet earlier this month.
The police operation began when officers attended a Kokiri Crescent address yesterday to make an arrest.
Around 35 people stayed at the nearby Te Horouta Marae overnight and about 80 ate dinner there.
The officer who was injured remained in a stable condition in Wellington Hospital.
