At least two folks had been killed and 5 others injured after a gunman stormed a constructing below building in Auckland, New Zealand, early Thursday, hours earlier than the primary soccer match of the Women’s World Cup was scheduled to start within the metropolis.
The gunman was later killed, the police stated at a news convention on Thursday afternoon. They additionally stated {that a} police officer was amongst these injured; he was taken to a hospital in important situation, and his situation had stabilized.
The authorities haven’t recognized the gunman, however the police stated he was believed to have been 24 years outdated and had labored on the building website the place the taking pictures occurred.
The police commissioner, Andrew Coster, stated that the gunman’s motive was believed to have been “connected to his work at the site.” He was below a house detention order however had permission to be on the building website. He was identified to police as a result of he had a historical past of home violence, Mr. Coster stated, including that there had additionally been “some indications of mental health history.”
He didn’t possess a firearms license for the shotgun he used, the authorities stated.
The New Zealand Herald additionally reported that he appeared earlier than an area court docket in March on fees together with assaulting a girl and injuring with intent to injure, and had been ordered to put on an digital monitoring ankle bracelet.
The taking pictures occurred as groups from New Zealand and Norway had been set to play at 7 p.m. native time at Eden Park Stadium, about three miles from the location of the taking pictures. Several World Cup groups and plenty of followers are staying in Auckland’s central business district, and the taking pictures occurred very near Norway’s workforce lodge and close to a fan pageant arrange for the match.
The United States workforce, which is able to play its first recreation of the match in Auckland in opposition to Vietnam in two days, can be staying within the space. The groups from Norway and the U.S. stated their gamers and workers had been protected and their preparations would proceed as standard.
New Zealand’s match in opposition to Norway on Thursday night time started on a somber observe: a second of silence for the victims of the taking pictures. Players from each groups gathered at midfield, and New Zealand’s reserves and training workers left their dugout to face on the touchline in solidarity.
A minute of silence can even be noticed on the match between Australia and Ireland on Thursday night time, FIFA stated in a press release.
The New Zealand Police started receiving experiences of an individual firing a gun inside the development website at about 7:22 a.m. native time, Mr. Coster stated.
The police stated after an armed man entered the high-rise constructing — which was occupied by dozens of building staff — on decrease Queen Street, he opened hearth on the third flooring, and made his method by the 21-story constructing, taking pictures as he went.
Passers-by and commuters heard the volley of gunshots throughout the morning rush hour. Armed law enforcement officials and automobiles swarmed the world, and the authorities shut down components of the town.
The taking pictures befell in a busy downtown space crowded with workplace buildings and lodges throughout the road from a ferry terminal on the town’s waterfront.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, stated at a news convention that the shooter had been armed with a pump-action shotgun and that it appeared he had acted alone.
Within minutes, scores of law enforcement officials carrying automated weapons descended on the location, warning folks to take cowl and ushering them out of the world. Streets had been closed in a two-block space, and a police helicopter hovered overhead. Officers pursued the gunman to the higher flooring, and, as soon as there, an alternate of gunfire — audible on the road beneath the tower — ensued.
The police confronted the gunman in an elevator shaft the place he had barricaded himself, and tried to have interaction with him, the police stated.
“The offender fired at police, injuring an officer,” the police stated. “Shots were exchanged, and the offender was later found deceased.”
Mr. Coster stated he was not sure if the gunman had been killed by the police.
Construction staff, lots of whom hid within the constructing throughout the taking pictures, had been launched hours later, and the police cleared the constructing.
Mr. Hipkins stated the Women’s World Cup would proceed as deliberate. FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique and the organizer of the match, stated its prime leaders had communicated with the New Zealand authorities and that the group was “in constant contact with the participating teams affected by this incident.”
At a second news convention on Thursday afternoon, he stated that the authorities would conduct a evaluation of the dealing with of the suspect whereas he was in dwelling detention, and whether or not there have been any purple flags about his habits.
Asked whether or not the assault confirmed a failure of New Zealand’s strict gun legal guidelines, he stated that the authorities wanted to analyze how the gunman obtained the firearm “before we make any judgment on the robustness or otherwise of our gun laws.”
Norway’s gamers had been all of their lodge throughout the taking pictures; some had been nonetheless asleep, however native news experiences stated a couple of had come down for breakfast in a eating room simply off the ground-floor foyer. As the police moved to shut off entry to the world across the taking pictures, safety guards requested members of the Norway delegation to remain contained in the lodge, in response to Lise Klaveness, the president of Norway’s soccer federation.
“Everything is calm in the Norwegian squad,” Halvor Lea, a spokesman for the Norway ladies’s workforce, stated in a press release. “Preparations are going as normal.”
In one other assertion, Maren Mjelde, the captain of the Norway workforce, stated many gamers most certainly had woken as much as the sound of a helicopter outdoors and the emergency automobiles that had arrived out entrance.
“We felt safe the whole time,” she stated.
This was the primary main taking pictures in New Zealand for the reason that nation banned most semiautomatic rifles in 2019, after 51 folks had been killed when a white supremacist opened hearth on Muslims praying in two mosques in Christchurch.
Days after that taking pictures, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister on the time, introduced a brief ban on most semiautomatic weapons, and a monthslong gun buyback and amnesty program started. Later that yr, a sweeping nationwide ban went into impact.
Even earlier than then, gun possession was comparatively uncommon in New Zealand, and gun violence is taken into account uncommon. But in 1997, six folks had been killed and 4 others injured within the North Island city of Raurimu.
And in 1990, a gunman within the small seaside township of Aramoana killed 13 folks and injured three others earlier than he was shot lifeless by the police. The shootings led to a 1992 modification to the rules on military-style semiautomatic weapons.
Juliet Macur and Andrew Das reported from Auckland, New Zealand, and Yan Zhuang from Sydney, Australia. Tariq Panja contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia.
Source: www.nytimes.com