New Zealand (NZ) had a bittersweet day after 24-year-old Matu Tangi Matua Reid shot several people at a construction site in Auckland's central business district (CBD) Thursday morning (July 21), hours before the first match of this year's FIFA Women's World Cup in the city.
NZ Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the shooter was a worker at the construction site and opened fire within a building that is under construction. "The offender made his way up the building site, discharging his firearm on multiple occasions. Police entered the building within 10 minutes," he added.
Reid was allegedly armed with a pump-action shotgun, officials said.
Police also said many people were evacuated, but a handful sheltered in place while the shooting was going on. The shooter was eventually cornered by police after he barricaded himself in an elevator shaft. He shot at responding officers before taking hits and dying.
The injured officer was taken to hospital in a critical condition but has since stabilized.
Aside from the gunman, two other people were killed and eight others injured, including two police officers.
As a result, public transport has been delayed but continuing, and the World Cup opening match of the NZ Ferns against Norway went ahead.
The US national soccer team and Douglas Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris's husband, were in Auckland and are safe from the shooting, US embassy officials said.
"Our security sort of immediately liaised with the local authorities and Department of State," US Soccer spokesman Aaron Heifetz added. "We determined immediately that everybody was safe and accounted for and from then on we just had to wait it out."
Gunman's Troubled Past
It was alleged the gunman was on home detention and had previous convictions, but was given an exemption in order for him to go to work, local media reported.
In a statement, construction LT McGuiness said Reid was an employee of a subcontractor who had been working on the project. "Today's tragic event has been a huge shock to us all," the firm added.
Turn Your Life Around Youth Development Trust co-general manager Jolene Cartwright told the NZ Herald she was shocked and "very devastated" to learn Reid, who once entered its rehabilitation program for youth offenders in 2017, was the gunman. "We feel really devastated regarding the situation and everyone involved," she added. "It's pretty traumatic at this point."
Gun violence in the country was rare after it tightened gun laws in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch shooting, which killed 51 people, most of whom were Muslims.
Meanwhile, US soccer player Lynn Williams said while she and her teammates were used to gun violence back home, they still found shooting incidents surreal. "There was definitely a sense of, 'Let's come together'," she added. "We still have a job to do. But also recognizing that there [were] lives lost and that is very real and very devastating."
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National Reaction
The nation co-hosts this year's FIFA Women's World Cup alongside Australia. Despite the shooting, NZ Prime Minister Chris Hipkins assured the public, including football fans, there was "no change" to the country's national threat level. He also expressed his "deep sorrow" that two people were killed in the incident.
Hipkins reassured the public the police neutralized the threat and there was no ongoing risk that would disrupt any of the Women's World Cup games.
"There was no identified political or ideological motivation for the shooting and therefore no national security risk," he added.
Hipkins also commended and congratulated NZ Police officers who brought the shooting to its swift resolution.
In a separate statement, NZ Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson told reporters FIFA's president and secretary general had passed on their condolences. All players and those associated with the competition were safe, the minister added.
Meanwhile, opposition party leaders Christopher Luxon (National Party) and David Seymour (ACT) have commended the swift resolution made by NZ Police. They both agreed there would be a right time to ask about what happened and who to blame, but the day of the shooting was not that day.
However, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters took advantage of the shooting to criticize the "ludicrously soft sentences that put community safety a distant last to the offenders' rights and excuses.
"Where has justice and common sense gone from our country?" he said in his statement on social media.
Investigations regarding the shooting incident are continuing, according to NZ Police.
Ferns Score 1-0 vs. Grasshoppers in First Goal of Women's World Cup
Meanwhile, the FIFA Women's World Cup began with a match between NZ and Norway.
Before the game, FIFA organizers remembered the victims of the incident, with both the 26th-seed Football Ferns (NZ) and the 12th-ranked Grasshoppers (Norway) standing opposite each other while offering a moment of silence alongside the crowd. The flags of both nations were also flown at half-mast as a gesture of mourning.
The Norwegian team was reportedly billeted near the scene of the shooting but were unfazed as FIFA arranged to have a security officer assigned to each team.
"Everyone probably woke up quite quickly when the helicopter hovered outside the hotel window and a large number of emergency vehicles arrived," Norway team captain Maren Mjelde said in a statement. "We felt safe the whole time. FIFA has a good security system at the hotel, and we have our own security officer in the squad."
As a result of the shooting, security in the stadium was amplified.
Both teams did not score during the first half of the game, but NZ's Hannah Wilkinson scored the first-ever goal of the tournament in the opening minutes of the second.
The goal for the Ferns equalized the devastation that happened in the city that morning.
What a night 🤍🖤#NZL #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/ma3XKHdvD9
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) July 20, 2023
A record crowd of 42,137 was present during the Ferns vs. Grasshoppers match, surpassing the country's previous record for an international football match.
"What a night," the Ferns' official account tweeted.
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