At least two individuals 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 in town.
The gunman was later killed, the police mentioned at a information convention on Thursday afternoon. They additionally mentioned {that a} police officer was amongst these injured; he was taken to a hospital in vital situation, and his situation had stabilized.
The authorities haven’t recognized the gunman, however the police mentioned he was believed to have been 24 years outdated and had labored on the building web site the place the capturing occurred.
The police commissioner, Andrew Coster, mentioned 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 web site. He was identified to police as a result of he had a historical past of home violence, Mr. Coster mentioned, 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 mentioned.
The New Zealand Herald also reported that he appeared earlier than an area courtroom in March on expenses together with assaulting a girl and injuring with intent to injure, and had been ordered to put on an digital monitoring ankle bracelet.
The capturing 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 positioning of the capturing. Several World Cup groups and plenty of followers are staying in Auckland’s central enterprise district, and the capturing occurred very near Norway’s staff lodge and close to a fan pageant arrange for the match.
The United States staff, which can play its first recreation of the match in Auckland in opposition to Vietnam in two days, can also be staying in the realm. The groups from Norway and the U.S. mentioned their gamers and employees had been secure and their preparations would proceed as traditional.
New Zealand’s match in opposition to Norway on Thursday night time started on a somber be aware: a second of silence for the victims of the capturing. Players from each groups gathered at midfield, and New Zealand’s reserves and training employees left their dugout to face on the touchline in solidarity.
A minute of silence may even be noticed on the match between Australia and Ireland on Thursday night time, FIFA mentioned in an announcement.
The New Zealand Police started receiving stories of an individual firing a gun inside the development web site at about 7:22 a.m. native time, Mr. Coster mentioned.
The police mentioned after an armed man entered the high-rise constructing — which was occupied by dozens of building employees — on decrease Queen Street, he opened hearth on the third ground, and made his means by way of the 21-story constructing, capturing as he went.
Passers-by and commuters heard the volley of gunshots through the morning rush hour. Armed cops and autos swarmed the realm, and the authorities shut down elements of town.
The capturing happened in a busy downtown space crowded with workplace buildings and lodges throughout the road from a ferry terminal on town’s waterfront.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, mentioned at a information convention that the shooter had been armed with a pump-action shotgun and that it appeared he had acted alone.
Within minutes, scores of cops carrying automated weapons descended on the positioning, warning individuals to take cowl and ushering them out of the realm. 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 under 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 mentioned.
“The offender fired at police, injuring an officer,” the police mentioned. “Shots were exchanged, and the offender was later found deceased.”
Mr. Coster mentioned he was uncertain if the gunman had been killed by the police.
Construction employees, a lot of whom hid in the constructing through the capturing, had been launched hours later, and the police cleared the constructing.
Mr. Hipkins mentioned the Women’s World Cup would proceed as deliberate. FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique and the organizer of the match, mentioned its high 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 information convention on Thursday afternoon, he mentioned that the authorities would conduct a assessment of the dealing with of the suspect whereas he was in dwelling detention, and whether or not there have been any crimson flags about his habits.
Asked whether or not the assault confirmed a failure of New Zealand’s strict gun legal guidelines, he mentioned 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 in their lodge through the capturing; some had been nonetheless asleep, however native information stories mentioned just a few 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 realm across the capturing, safety guards requested members of the Norway delegation to remain contained in the lodge, based on Lise Klaveness, the president of Norway’s soccer federation.
“Everything is calm in the Norwegian squad,” Halvor Lea, a spokesman for the Norway girls’s staff, mentioned in an announcement. “Preparations are going as normal.”
In one other assertion, Maren Mjelde, the captain of the Norway staff, mentioned many gamers probably had woken as much as the sound of a helicopter exterior and the emergency autos that had arrived out entrance.
“We felt safe the whole time,” she mentioned.
This was the primary main capturing in New Zealand for the reason that nation banned most semiautomatic rifles in 2019, after 51 people were killed when a white supremacist opened fire on Muslims praying in two mosques in Christchurch.
Days after that capturing, 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 year, a sweeping nationwide ban went into impact.
Even earlier than then, gun ownership was relatively rare in New Zealand, and gun violence is taken into account uncommon. But in 1997, six individuals had been killed and 4 others injured in the North Island city of Raurimu.
And in 1990, a gunman in the small seaside township of Aramoana killed 13 people 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.
