Christina Tuala had just finished making a delivery of joinery supplies for a store fit-out in central Auckland when shots rang out from an adjoining building. Parked just 20 metres from the building with her colleague Jerome Hisus, she watched as streams of workers fled en masse.
“First we heard two gunshots, we had closed up our truck, and everyone started running. We looked up and saw two men crouching, cowering in the corner, and one lying down, we thought he had been shot.”
From their vantage point, Tuala and Hisus could see the three men in the building, many floors above – clearly visible in their bright hi-vis work gear – taking refuge in a corner.
“We didn’t know why people were running at first. People were yelling to get out, police and security were helping to push people behind buildings, or anything hard, because the shooting was happening.”
Hisus, originally from the Philippines, said many of the construction workers were Filipino and relayed to him in their native language the situation as they ran.
“They told me they had seen firing from a gun, one man had seen the gunman and told me someone had fallen on the stairs – maybe he had been shot.”
It was early, Tuala says, “so a lot of people were eating breakfast at cafes, holding food as they fled. A Swat team in black ran past our truck. It felt like a movie, surreal-like it wasn’t happening.”
Ferried to a large shed across the road, the pair heard a further eight quick-fire shots in succession. “There were a couple hundred people crowded in the shed, tourists who didn’t know what was going on, everyone in the vicinity.”
Two people were killed when a shooter opened fire on the Auckland building site early on Thursday. Police say the gunman had a history of violence and mental health issues.
Armed with a pump-action shotgun he made his way through the 22-floor building under construction in the city’s central business district, injuring a further five people, including a police officer.
When he reached the upper levels, he took refuge inside an elevator shaft.
“Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later,” police said.
Just a few hours later on Quay Street – a narrow thoroughfare that traverses downtown Auckland’s waterfront – small crowds were still gathered behind a police cordon stretching several blocks.
Among the assembled onlookers were tourists, newly arrived in New Zealand for the opening of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
A family visiting from Los Angeles and San Francisco surveyed the scene before them: police vehicles parked on angles in front of yellow cordon tape, rows of commuter buses stacked and paused in a chain and closed storefronts.
Having landed in Auckland an hour earlier, awaiting a long layover for a flight to Dunedin for the Philippines vs Switzerland match tomorrow night, the news of a shooting was, says Max Ramos, surprising – but not unusual.
“Unfortunately, it’s common. More so in the United States, but doesn’t New Zealand have strict gun laws?”
Frank Hess was also newly arrived to attend the World Cup, having landed in Auckland on Monday. He and his family from Berlin had planned to take the ferry across the harbour to Waiheke Island for a day trip. Wearing a thick black puffer jacket to guard against the chill, he said that having lived in Texas for five years he was unsurprised by the news.
“It’s unfortunate, but there are shootings everywhere around the world. We even get used to it.”
His son Leo described being witness to the 2016 Berlin truck attack, where a truck was deliberately driven into a Christmas market, killing 12 and injuring 56 others.
At a press conference late on Thursday, police commissioner, Andrew Coster, described New Zealand as a safe country.
He said the situation was tragic, but was connected to the workplace and there was no elevated concern for the World Cup launch tonight. He promised an increased police presence and said that his staff showed tremendous courage. “I’m proud of them”, he said.
But “for those who hid or remained trapped, this was a terrifying experience.”
