Gunman, 11 Victims Die in New Zealand’s Worst Massacre

A man described as a loner upset by the recent death of his mother was fatally wounded by police today after gunning down 11 people, wiping out almost half the population of a tiny seaside village.

New Zealand’s worst massacre began Tuesday night when 33-year-old David Malcolm Gray set fire to a neighbor’s house in the South Island village of Aramoana and began shooting people who came to help.

“There may have been a children’s party on there or something, as there seemed to be a lot of kids about,” neighbor Dorothy Crimp said.

The siege in the town 17 miles north of Dunedin ended 23 hours later when anti-terrorism police rushed a house where Gray was holed up and shot him in the chest after he wounded one officer.

In between, Gray killed two children, including a 6-year-old boy who rode by on his bicycle, the police chief from nearby Port Chalmers and eight other adults.

Two girls wounded in the assault were hospitalized in stable condition.

Gray had used high-powered rifles to keep police at bay and prevent them from reaching the victims, who were scattered on the lawn of his house and a nearby street.

New Zealand Police Commissioner John Jamieson described the gunman as “one tough customer” and “absolutely ruthless.”

“We have a situation here obviously with a lunatic who’s gone berserk,” Jamieson said. “There are young children getting shot down in cold blood.”

About 140 police poured into remote Aramoana, which lies on a point in an area of steep hillsides and sandy marsh. Only one main road leads in and out.

Dunedin police Sgt. Bill O’Brien said police were mystified as to what sparked the incident.

“We don’t know why he has done this,” O’Brien said.

Neighbors described the unemployed Gray as a moody loner who had been upset by the death of his mother about three months ago.

Frank and Iris Henderson, who live in nearby Waipuna Bay, said 6-year-old victim Leo Wilson lived in the house opposite them.

“He heard all the police cars and fire engines going past and went down on his bike to have a look at it all. He ran straight into it,” Henderson said.

The worst previous massacre in New Zealand occurred in 1941 when Eric Stanley Graham killed six police officers before being shot dead.