DARWIN’S GUNMAN HUNTED FOR ‘ALEX’
THE 45-year-old man suspected of killing four people during a shooting rampage in Darwin was looking for a man named “Alex” who was interstate.
NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw yesterday revealed what investigators believe was the sequence of events that led to four men being killed and a woman being shot in the leg.
Territory Response Group officers tasered Darwin man Ben Hoffmann before arresting him at the Stuart Highway and McMinn St intersection at 6.44pm on Tuesday.
Numerous witnesses, including Darwin local Matthew James, said the shooter had been firing his gun and shouting “Alex”.
The shooter was in the area of Humpty Doo, nearly 40km south of Darwin, at 4pm, Mr Kershaw said.
He then went to the Palms Motel, 18 Gardens Hill Crescent, the Buff Club and Jolly St, where he killed four men and injured the woman.
He also tried to enter the Peter McCauley Centre police station to possibly hand himself in, then phoned a duty superintendent who did a “magnificent job in negotiating with him” before the arrest, Mr Kershaw said.
At least one of the dead, taxi driver and IT student Hassan Baydoun, 33, is believed to have never met Hoffmann.
Police had the serial number of a prohibited pump-action 12-gauge shotgun used in the shootings that might have been stolen, Mr Kershaw said.
“I’d like to reassure the Territory community and all Territorians that we, the police, on reasonable grounds, have arrested that person that we believe has committed these horrific crimes,” he said.
While Hoffmann has links to bikie groups and crime, Mr Kershaw said he did not believe any of the victims did.
Hoffmann, who was well known in the tight-knit NT city, had been paroled from prison in January after serving four years of a six-year sentence and had been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Television footage showed Hoffman on the ground after being dragged from under his white dual-cab ute, kicking his legs at police officers.
Matthew James said he was standing in a nearby carpark when it all began.
“Moments later someone came running towards me carrying this woman who was covered in blood and just basically put her at my feet and she was screaming that she had been shot,” he said.
The injured woman is in hospital, in a stable condition.