A man who was fatally shot by police as he approached Auckland's Sylvia Park Shopping Centre while carrying a stolen air rifle was on community detention and supervision, RNZ can reveal.

RNZ understands the 33-year-old has four previous convictions for firearms offences and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2023 for aggravated robbery.

Since being released in 2025, he stole more than $1000 worth of goods from Rebel Sports and was serving a sentence of four months community detention and supervision.

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It is understood he was on this sentence when he was shot dead yesterday.

He was facing a charge of taking a Subaru Legacy when he was killed and appeared in court less than a month ago.

In response to questions from RNZ, Corrections director of communities, partnerships and pathways Simon Chaplin said Corrections' thoughts were with those impacted by the incident at Sylvia Park.

"Corrections can confirm this person was subject to community detention and supervision.

"Their community sentence included a 7pm-7am curfew where electronic monitoring was used to verify that they were at their home address during the hours of this curfew. They were not in breach of this curfew at the time the Sylvia Park incident occurred."

Corrections was reviewing its involvement with the man.

"It would not be appropriate for us to provide further information while this and the police reviews are ongoing."

According to Corrections' website community detention is a "punitive sentence that restricts an offender's movements during their curfew". The offenders are subject to electronic monitoring and/or GPS, and they must wear an anklet at all times during their sentence.

"It requires an offender to remain at an approved residence at certain times specified by the court. This is known as the offender's curfew.

"Electronic monitoring equipment is installed at the offender's address and their compliance with their curfew is electronically monitored for the duration of the sentence."

Offenders can be sentenced to community detention for between 14 days and six months.

Superintendent Sunny Patel earlier said police had received information about the theft of an air rifle from Gun City in Penrose around 2pm on Thursday.

Police vehicles and the Eagle helicopter were dispatched to the area, locating the car near Sylvia Park.

Spikes were successfully deployed but the car continued towards Mount Wellington Highway, still being driven in an erratic manner, Patel said.

Police confronted the man underneath an overpass as he approached the entrance of Sylvia Park, still carrying the air rifle. He was then shot by police.

Patel confirmed police were carrying out a critical incident investigation. He also confirmed the IPCA had been notified and would be carrying out its own investigation.

He said it was not known whether the air rifle was loaded, or whether the man had any ammunition.

Patel was not aware of how many times the man was shot, whether there had been any attempt to detain him or whether he had aimed the weapon at anyone.

"That's something that will need to be uncovered when we carry out the full investigation, when we've actually spoken to the police officers involved," he said on Thursday night.

The decision to shoot rested with the officer at the scene, and no clearance was required, he said.

"Our investigation is still at the very early stages of piecing together the events," he said.

Patel could not comment on whether the man had threatened staff at the gun shop, or if staff had attempted to stop the man. The gun theft had been a shoplifting incident and the man had walked in through the front door.

The police investigation would look into what happened at the store, but it was concerning the man was able to steal a weapon, Patel said.

"We just don't know the circumstances of how he became in possession of that firearm.

"Until we've actually figured out the nature of the actual theft and how it occurred, it is of concern."

Patel said the man was alone, and they were not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident.

Witnesses or anyone with phone or dashcam footage were urged to come forward.

Patel said he was happy with police response times to the incident, and said they were providing support to the officer who fatally shot the man.

"We've put support in place for the officer concerned and that support will be ongoing. No one comes to work and expects this kind of result. Our staff work very, very hard on a daily basis to make sure the community is safe, and this is the last thing that they want to experience."

Police have also been in contact with the management of the gun store and Ngāti Pāoa, the local iwi.