“Gone too soon. Rest in peace,” loved ones wrote on Facebook.
Tupuga Sipiliano was tragically killed in the shooting in Auckland CBD this week. Photo / Supplied
The high-rise, downtown Auckland construction site where Matu Reid ran riot with a shotgun, killing two workers before dying in an exchange of gunfire with police, will remain cordoned off as a crime scene today.
Police said the two men Reid killed were colleagues of the gunman.
McKay said investigation staff were interviewing a large number of witnesses while making other inquiries.
Four other victims remain in hospital receiving treatment, including a police officer who was shot. Another injured officer is recovering at home.
McKay said police still wanted anyone who had photos or videos of the incident to send them through to help with the investigation, via an online portal.
Any witnesses who had not yet come forward were asked to call 105.
Three bodies, the shooter and the two victims who died, were removed from the building on Friday.
An eyewitness said the attack appeared targeted.
“I can remember him yelling ‘So what you going to do to me now ... what can you do’,” the worker, who had only been working at that construction site for less than a month, told the Herald.
“I don’t know, but the two people he shot was like he wanted to kill those two people. I feel like he was too angry because he was yelling out to people because when he came to my room he left slow and he could have shot randomly if he was looking for someone.
“The way he was yelling was like he came with a purpose. It all happened within five minutes.”
Reid was on home detention at the time of the killing but had dispensation to travel to the site for work.
He was sentenced to five months’ home detention on March 2021 for a violent assault where he struck and strangled a woman, breaking a bone in her neck. That attack was carried out while he was serving a sentence of supervision following an earlier assault.
The sentencing notes of Judge Stephen Bonnar KC show a probation officer assessed Reid as being at low risk of reoffending. The probation officer recommended home detention as a suitable sentence.
Corrections’ chief probation officer is carrying out an internal review.
Reid was boarding at a property on the North Shore, along with the parents of his victim, who also stayed there a few nights a week.
Shortly before midnight, something said by the woman, whose name is suppressed, triggered anger in Reid, Judge Bonnar said.
They argued and he pushed the woman off the chair.
Construction workers on the roof taking cover as the shooting unfolds.
When she tried to speak to him, Reid verbally abused her and then threw an object at her head, hitting her in the right eye. He threatened to “take out” the woman and the rest of the family.
He then kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying backward onto the bed, at which point Reid stood over her and seized her throat for about 10 seconds. She was unable to breathe.
Reid relinquished his grip but continued to verbally abuse her before slapping and punching her.
He then said to her words to the effect of “you don’t know what I’m capable of”.
