New Zealand landlord runs over tenant after racially charged attack outside home

A landlord says he accidentally ran over and killed a racially abusive tenant while trying to flee a violent confrontation outside the home.

A New Zealand landlord says he accidentally ran over and killed a racially abusive tenant while trying to flee a violent confrontation outside his rental home on Saturday evening.

Chandra Phal visited his Christchurch property to take photos for a Facebook ad after serving a 90-day eviction notice on tenants Anthony Robinson and his partner Jodie Reeves, Stuff.co.nz reports.

When he arrived, Mr Phal says he found Mr Robinson, 51, outside mowing the lawn. He sat in the car for about 10 minutes waiting for Mr Robinson to go inside so he could take photos.

After Mr Robinson allegedly became threatening, “lunging towards me and swearing”, Mr Phal says his reaction “was to get out of there, I jumped in the car, closed the door and floored the car”.

“Unknown to me he had put his hand inside the car window and grabbed onto the car. My aim was just to get away,” Mr Phal told Stuff.co.nz.

He had driven about 100 metres up the road before he heard Mr Robinson yell “you’re hurting me” and realised he was holding onto the car.

“I could see his face and his hand. I stopped and he fell to the ground,” he said. “I proceeded because I thought I was in danger. I rung the police and I could see people running to him so I knew he was being taken care of.”

Mr Phal, fearful for his safety, eventually returned to the scene where paramedics were attending to Mr Robinson. He sat on the roadside for an hour before he was told the man had died.

“I didn’t kill someone, it was an accident,” he said. “I didn’t even know he had hung on to the car. I was just trying to run away. Reality hasn’t sunk in that I caused a death, a preventable death. My main concerns was my own safety, I didn’t want him to punch me.”

Mr Phal, who was born in Fiji, claims the tenants had been racially abusing him for the last six months. Ms Reeves admitted to sending some “nasty messages” but said he had put her through “hell”.

She also admitted telling him to “f**k off, you black c**t” on Saturday but claims he refused to leave after being asked “three times”. “He should not (have) been here, it makes me sick knowing an old man is taking photos of my home,” she said.

“Then Anthony went over, leaned on his car then he went to drive off but Anthony had hold of his car.”

Police have spoken to a number of witnesses but as of Monday had not made any arrests in relation to the incident.