Auckland shooting attack shocks nation

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The shooting rampage at a building site in central Auckland has left three people dead, one of them the shooter, six people injured — including a police officer who was taken to hospital in a critical condition before being stabilised — and a nation in shock.

Central Auckland looked something like a film set as police and emergency vehicles rushed to the scene following multiple calls just after 7.20am, and the police Eagle helicopter circled — echoing scenes too familiar in the United States.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called a press conference which seemed to be largely directed at preventing any widespread panic, as he was able to confirm the shooting was not terrorist-related and there was no national security risk.

Hipkins said there was no identified ideological or political motivation from the shooter, who was later identified as being a worker at the site.

“This has been a very grim morning for us,” he said.

Nevertheless he was right when he said the eyes of the world were on Auckland. International media quickly picked up the story, which had more impact because of the  high number of overseas sportspeople, visitors  and media in the country at present for the opening of the FIFA Women’s World Cup last night.

Hipkins also confirmed that the opening ceremony and first match, which he was actually in Auckland to attend, would go ahead. New Zealand were playing Norway before a sell-out crowd of 43,000 at Eden Park — easily a record for New Zealand football at home.

Coincidentally, the Norway team were staying in a hotel only a few minutes walk from the scene of the shooting, but said they were not affected and felt safe.

Importantly, FIFA, the world’s football governing body, and later police also confirmed that the tournament would start as planned.

Despite all the assurances, it is not a good image for New Zealand that this should happen just as one of the biggest sports events ever held in this country was due to start, with a potential audience of more than

1 billion over the next month.

Inevitably any incident of this sort brings back memories of the Christchurch mosque shootings of 2019 that left 51 dead.

That was a rude awakening for the country, that our comparative isolation has not made us safe. Even in the few years since then, gun crime has increased to the stage that a fatal shooting, often gang related, does not raise the level of media attention that it would have in earlier decades.

That said, it is a tragedy for at least three families and the country’s sympathy will go to all who have been affected.