A brush with law on day of death
A MAN arrested over the Northern Territory’s worst mass shooting, who will soon be charged with murder, was picked up by police for speeding in the hours before the killing started.
Ben Hoffmann, 45, was on parole when he allegedly used a pump action 12 gauge shotgun to kill four men and seriously injure a woman on Tuesday evening in and around Darwin.
Witnesses and NT Police say the gunman was looking for a man named “Alex” when the shooting began. Police later established Alex, a Darwin resident, was in fact interstate at the time.
Now police have revealed he was first picked up at 10.52am on Tuesday for driving 14km/h over the speed limit near Humpty Doo.
“He was not displaying any adverse behaviour or to reveal he was under the influence of anything, and nothing out of the ordinary was observed by police officers,” NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said yesterday. The vehicle was then twice detected speeding at 11am and 12.25pm around Pinelands. Later, about 4pm, Hoffman was at Jefferies Rd, Humpty Doo when a member of the public called police. He left soon after.
Hoffman has been held under guard in a Darwin hospital – where he has undergone surgery for apparent knife wounds “sustained prior” to being Tasered and arrested by police – since late Tuesday night.
He was being formally interviewed yesterday by major crime detectives.
“It is also anticipated that later today (yesterday) he will be charged with four counts of murder,” Mr Kershaw said.
The shooting rampage has raised questions about why Hoffman was released in January after serving a non-parole period of four years of his sixyear sentence, given his extensive criminal history.
His latest alleged act of violence, while wearing an electronic monitoring device, took place over the period of an hour in areas around Darwin.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner has asked for a report from the Parole Board on Hoffmann, and for another review of all people currently on parole and on electronic monitoring, by the end of next week.
Hoffman’s parole was formally revoked yesterday.
Hoffman had previously breached parole by breaking curfew, for which he was given a 14-day custodial sentence in late April.
When Hoffmann was jailed in 2015, his victim Hussain Garling – who was bashed with a baseball bat in front of his infant son – told the court he “needs to be put away for a very long time, because he will do worse to someone next time”.
Of the 103 people on parole in the NT, 46 are also being electronically monitored.