A recycling worker who watched as his friend was shot dead during a shooting rampage in Darwin said he had been watching television in his work site unit when he heard a pounding at his door on Tuesday night.
Moments later, a man wearing hi-vis and holding a sawn-off shotgun had busted inside his home on Jolly Road in Woolner, and was looking straight at him.
‘I looked at him and thought: “f**k this is it”,’ Johnny Reid told The NT News. ‘I thought I was dead for sure.’
But the alleged gunman, accused of killing four people in a horrific rampage that took place over an hour and in five locations that night, turned past him and shot his friend four times instead.
‘I asked him what he was doing but he went right past me and shot my mate,’ Mr Reid said.
‘His body is still in there.’
A Darwin man has described the moment an alleged gunman (pictured) accused of murdering four people during a shooting rampage on Tuesday night knocked down his door and shot his friend
Johnny Reid said he had been watching television in his work site unit at Woolner (pictured) when he came face to face with the alleged gunman, who allegedly then turned and shot his friend four times
Darwin Recycling manager Peter Boden, who also lives nearby, told the paper he saw the alleged gunman enter the unit, but didn’t realise something was amiss until he heard the shots.
He raced to help, calling the police and breaking down doors until he found Mr Reid’s home, but by then it was too late.
‘I went in and found the body,’ he said.
‘I nearly tripped over the bloody thing.’
The suspected shooter has been identified as the 45-year-old son of a respected Darwin family who reportedly fell in with a ‘bad crowd’ during a rehab stint.
In the days before the shooting, the heavily-tattooed man was fired from his job at a roofing company after he repeatedly failed to show up for work, according to the NT News.
The man, who was known to police and was released on parole earlier this year, was arrested (pictured) after about an hour of terror that involved five locations
The shooting rampage is understood to have begun at the Palms Motel in Darwin (pictured), with the first call to emergency services lodged about 5.45pm on Tuesday
His mother had tried to help her son, the man’s former boss said.
‘His mum rang me and said: ”Can you please help him? Give him a second chance in life”,’ he revealed on Tuesday.
‘He wasn’t coming in to work and I basically said a few days ago – I told him ”you have to go elsewhere, you have to start looking for other work and start over”.
He said he was in disbelief over what had happened.
The alleged gunman, who reportedly has links to an outlaw bikie gang, caused terror before contacting police to hand himself in.
The chaos began at the Palms Motel in Finniss St, just before 6pm, as a man wearing hi-vis clothing allegedly began firing shots as he moved from room to room.
Emergency service vehicles were seen attending the scene in Darwin on Tuesday evening
The initial shooting unfolded in the city’s inner suburbs just before 6pm, but there are reports of up to five further crime scenes (police attending the scene pictured)
A witness, who was confronted by the alleged gunman, said he appeared calm as he moved through the property.
‘We pulled up here and we heard a lot of banging and saw people scattering… all of a sudden we looked in the window here and (saw) a guy with a gun. We saw him walking calmly down through the unit blocks.
‘(Police) went straight past him because they didn’t know who he was. He was that calm.’
Facebook user John Rose said he witnessed a man ‘shoot up the Palms Hotel’.
‘We watched him like 20 feet away, calmly walk into the hotel room, shoot the door open and then proceeded to shoot up every room,’ he wrote.
Witness Matt James told the Today show on Wednesday he had helped bandage the wounds of a woman who had been shot in the leg.
Mr James had been standing in the car park when he saw a man carrying over a wounded woman. He got a towel for her and wrapped up her legs until emergency services arrived shortly after.
He said the man who had carried her over told him he’d opened the door at the hotel only to be confronted by the accused gunman who allegedly ‘proceeded to fire upon anybody inside the building’.
‘He was allegedly walking around screaming out for Alex,’ Mr James recounted.
‘I don’t know who that is. I’ve been told it’s one of the deceased.’
Mr James said the man he spoke to ‘had no idea why this man had come after him or her and why so many gun shots, you know, such a rampage through the hotel that they were newly staying at’.
Another witness, Leah Potter, who was at the nearby Alatai Holiday Apartments, said she saw a woman get shot.
Ms Potter told the ABC she had initially thought fireworks had been going off.
‘I was in the carpark [of a nearby hotel] when I heard what I thought were fireworks going off, really loud, cracking, banging fireworks,’ she said.
The map shows four of the confirmed crime scene locations the suspected attended on Tuesday evening
‘And then a man came running with a woman in his arms from next door which is the Palms Motel, which is the motel next to my motel, and he just dropped her on the footpath right in front of us.’
She said she tried to help the woman, who had ‘little holes’ in her skin on both legs.
Ms Potter added the victim was ‘bleeding everywhere’.
Another witness told the ABC he watched the man walk ‘from room to room shooting every room’.
It is believed one man was killed and the woman was injured at the motel.
Witness Leah Potter, who was at the Alatai Holiday Apartments (pictured) near the city’s Central Business District, said she saw a woman get shot
When the alleged shooter fled the scene in a vehicle, it is believed he made his way to an apartment complex on Garden Hills Crescent in The Gardens, where one man is believed to have been killed.
The exact timeline of events remains unclear.
Shots also rang out at the nearby Buffalo Club, where another person is believed to have perished in the car park.
Another man was reportedly killed when the man stormed a Jolly St home.
A male, who had been in the home at the time, told NT News a man broke into his house and allegedly shot his housemate.
‘He came right in and I asked him what he was doing but he didn’t even look at me, went right past me and shot my mate, he’s still in there… I thought I was dead for sure. It was unbelievable,’ the witness said.
Police have confirmed a 45-year-old male is now in custody (police attending the crime scene pictured)
Police have confirmed four people have died and more are believed to have been injured (Ambulance officer near to the scene pictured)
The alleged gunman also attempted to enter the force’s Peter McAulay Centre facility, police said.
After about an hour on the run he contacted police and requested to be put into protective custody, Police Commissioner for the Northern Territory Reece Kershaw told reporters.
A team of heavily armed police officers were then sent to McMinn Street, where they swarmed a vehicle at the intersection before the man was tasered.
The man, who was covered in blood and without a shirt, dropped to the floor where he was arrested. He is in police custody at the Royal Darwin Hospital.
Police confirmed they were still trying to establish intent and motivation.
The female victim was taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital in a stable condition.
The alleged shooter is expected to be charged with four counts of murder.
It’s understood the alleged gunman was surrounded by armed police in the centre of an intersection before he was tasered (McMinn Street pictured)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemn the shooting.
‘This is a terrible act of violence that has already, I’m advised, taken the lives of four people. There are a number of others who have – casualties but the details of that is still not yet confirmed,’ Mr Morrison said from London.
He said the matter would be ‘managed’ and ‘dealt with’ by the Northern Territory government.’
‘I want to thank the Chief Minister (Michael) Gunner for the way that he’s working with the Commonwealth authorities but particularly I just want to extend my deep condolences and sympathies,’ he said.
Mr Morrison said the community in Darwin would be ‘rocked’ by the attack, but advised it was ‘not a terrorist act’.
‘There is nothing to suggest that that is the case whatsoever. This is – the true motivations of this criminal and violent act will become better known.
‘There is a person, I understand, in custody and they will work through those normal processes,’ Mr Morrison said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) has spoken out to condemn the ‘terrible act of violence’
‘In the meantime, I think it is important that everyone in Darwin, everyone in the Territory, understands that the thoughts of Australians, wherever they are, as far as away as where I am today or closer to home, they will be thinking very much of their fellow.’
Chief Minister Michael Gunner confirmed authorities do not believe the attack is a terror related.
‘This is not the Darwin we know. As Chief Minister, on behalf of Territorians, our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victim[s]and everybody else who has been impacted,’ Chief Minister Gunner said.
‘I understand when an event like this occurs, especially considering recent global events, people’s fears turn to terrorism. I can confirm that we do not believe this is a terrorism incident.’
He went on to thank the emergency services who attended the scene.
‘This may be an event you prepare for but this is never an event you want to respond to. I thank our police and first responders.
‘This has been an incredibly difficult night tonight. Territorians can be proud of those who serve us on our front-line.’
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