Security footage from inside the Commercial Bay tower complex shows heavily armed police sweeping the building after the mass shooting in Auckland this morning.
With rifles raised, flashlights and other tactical equipment, the officers move through the restaurants, searching the building for any more danger after the gunman, 24-year-old Matu Tangi Matua Reid, was killed following a shootout with police.
Before his death, Reid killed two civilians and injured at least five others, including a police officer.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, speaking at a media briefing this afternoon, offered his condolences to the family and friends of colleagues and victims.
Coster said his investigation team was working at pace to determine the cause of the shooting.
He said police were at the site within minutes of receiving multiple calls just after 7.20am.
The offender made his way up the site, and members of the public were evacuated whenever possible.
Police located the offender in a lift shaft. The offender fired at police, injuring an officer.
Coster said the officer will receive surgery today.
Coster said it was a shocking and traumatic event for those who came to work and found themselves in the middle of an armed emergency.
The offender did not have a firearms licence. Coster confirmed the weapon fired by the offender was a shotgun.
Coster confirmed the offender was the subject of home detention. He wasn’t breaching conditions by going to the site.
The Herald earlier reported Reid was serving a community-based sentence of home detention at the time of the shooting and was subject to electronic monitoring via an ankle bracelet tracker.
He was known for his family violence history, but Coster said there was no history of him showing prior risk.
“There has been [a] previous search of his property, but [we] never found him in possession of a firearm.”
Stuart Cockburn, general manager of ambulance operations for Hato Hone St John, said they had assessed 10 patients and seven had been taken to hospital.
Witnesses have described seeing the shooter stroll casually through the Britomart train station just before he attacked the under-renovation One Queen St building.
The shooter, who was carrying a pump-action shotgun, walked up the stairs and yelled at the building’s construction workers to climb to the roof or he would shoot them.
Workers told the Herald they started to leave the building when the fire alarm went off, but they didn’t realise it wasn’t a drill until others started running and shouting.
High-visibility vest-clad workers can be seen hiding behind things on the roof and in offices halfway up the building in photos.
Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.