A home in an upmarket neighbourhood and a nearby toilet block are at the centre of a homicide probe in Hamilton as police continue to look for the alleged offenders.
Emergency services were called to a Lake Cres address at about 6:15pm last night, where it emerged two people had been injured.
A man later died at the scene, and another person was taken to Waikato Hospital in serious condition.
Detective Inspector Daryl Smith said examinations are being conducted at two locations – a Lake Cres address and a nearby public toilet block.
“We have officers working at the Lake Cres address, and also at a second location of interest, several hundred metres away – the toilet block at the yacht club," Smith said.
Smith said police are actively working to locate those involved and ask anyone who may have information that could help to come forward.
“We believe those involved have travelled on foot between our two scene locations, so we would encourage anyone who may have seen anything in the area to contact us,” Smith said.
“We know this will be an unsettling time for those in our community that such violence occurred in a public place.
“I can reassure people we are working hard to hold people to account.”
Today, forensic experts and armed police are stationed on the street with at least one home taped off. The nearby toilet block is also taped off, with an officer standing guard outside.
Residents living near the cordon were this morning shocked to find their normally quiet, friendly neighbourhood now the focus of a major police operation after a suspicious death.
A resident living close to the cordon said he spoke to an officer last night who told him gunshots had been heard just “short” of his house.
He said usually the street was “very quiet”, and police “very rarely” there.
“I don’t have many problems around here, [just] an occasional burglary ... but [it’s] not an area that has too much problems really.”
Another resident living close to the cordon said she was unsure if the incident was related to someone living on the street or from the lake.
“We don’t know if they were fighting each other or if somebody else [from the street] was involved.
“We haven’t actually heard anything and everyone was messaging us asking what’s going on, and I thought it might have been down the other end because we didn’t even hear sirens.”
She said she asked police at the cordon if they had caught the person, and was told “I think they have”.
Another neighbour who lives a couple of houses away from the incident said the police presence was “surprising” to him since he “hardly” saw any police on the street.
“It’s usually just ambulances going to the hospital.”
He said he only noticed something was going on when he saw the police lights. There was no noise.
“We don’t really know what’s going on.
“There were quite a few of them. At first I thought there was a fire maybe because there was the fire brigade.“
Police asked him for CCTV footage.
Another resident who has lived on the street for more than 40 years said this was “the first time I’ve seen police holding a gun in Hamilton”.
He hadn’t heard anything about the incident until he read the news.
He doesn’t feel unsafe due to the police presence, but is still shocked.
“I never see police here holding [a] gun and blocking traffic, our area is very quiet.”
He said the people of the street were very friendly, with people walking down the driveway to go to the lake.
“It’s surprising … injury like this and gunshot, it’s never happened before.”
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