‘It didn’t seem like he was going to stop’
● Three critically injured in random attack ● Alleged Dunedin attacker had two knives ● Heroes tackle supermarket stabber ● Shoppers ‘were even throwing stuff at him’
As Jenny McDowell was doing her shopping at a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin she heard screams ring out across the aisles.
Looking up thinking people were arguing, she saw someone stab a female employee – before she herself locked eyes with a man wielding a knife.
“I just kind of stood there for a second ... you’re thinking, is this happening?,” McDowell, 39, told The Press. “I thought that I might be next.”
McDowell escaped the mayhem, but four others were not so lucky.
Last night three people lay fighting for their lives in Dunedin Hospital’s intensive care, a fourth also injured.
It is understood some victims were repeatedly stabbed and one woman received cuts to her hands. The Press also understands another victim had to be revived inside the supermarket.
Emergency services including armed police were scrambled and responded within minutes to the unfolding terror.
Footage online showed officers leading a man to the Dunedin central police station, next door to the supermarket, covered in blood.
Among the injured were a husband and wife, along with a manager in the supermarket, Dallas Wilson, known as an understated kind of guy but the sort of person who would help out if there was trouble.
The alleged offender, believed to be a man in his 40s, was receiving medical attention under police guard in Dunedin Hospital last night.
The man was yet to be formally charged but was expected to appear in court today.
Last night, Southern district commander Superintendent Paul Basham said officers were seeking to establish the identity of the victims and contact their
“I thought that I might be next.”
Jenny McDowell, right
next of kin. Asked what charges the man was likely to face, Basham said the alleged offender would likely face charges of at least causing grievous bodily harm.
Police were still working to understand the motivations for the stabbing, but they believed it was a ‘‘random attack’’, describing it as ‘‘fast-moving and extremely traumatic’’ for everyone at the supermarket.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there was nothing to suggest it was a domestic terror event.
Bystanders who helped tackle the man have been hailed as heroes by police. As the rampage unfolded shortly before 2.30pm members of the public rushed to help, desperately trying to stop the man attacking a woman near a pharmacy inside the Cumberland St supermarket.
‘‘It didn’t seem like he was going to stop,’’ McDowell said.
‘‘They were doing everything to try and distract him, they were even throwing stuff at him.
‘‘There was a lot of commotion . . . I saw him just stabbing anyone that was in his vicinity.’’
As the assailant was stabbing a man, a person armed with a chair is understood to have helped stop the assault – and a person at the scene said his action may have ‘‘saved his life’’.
A witness said the attacker called out ‘‘witches, witches’’ when he was held by people on the ground, and said the man had been using small knives.
Another person said staff members were stabbed as they tried to help, and that a big man who stepped in bore the brunt of it.
‘‘That’s when the other male customer hit him – he hit him with a couple of bottles as well, which didn’t have much effect.’’
McDowell noticed a man lying on the floor with a stab wound to his neck, while a woman nearby had wounds in her back.
After momentarily freezing, her first aid training from the past kicked in. She grabbed her reusable bag and emptied it to help stop the man’s neck bleeding, but a Countdown worker got their first and used his jersey to apply pressure to his neck.
‘‘The injured man kept saying, ‘my wife, my wife, is my wife OK?’.
‘‘I just tried to reassure him that help was on its way and tried and comfort him as best I could.’’
Hours after the incident McDowell said she was ‘‘pretty shaky’’, and kept replaying the ordeal in her head.
‘‘I just keep thinking, what if I hadn’t froze, if I’d acted faster and just applied pressure to that wound sooner, would that guy have lost as much blood.
‘‘There was just blood everywhere. I
A witness said the attacker called out ‘‘witches, witches’’ when he was held by people on the ground.
had blood on my clothes, it was just terrifying and horrifying.’’
Another witness, a Wellington woman on her first visit to Dunedin, said her fam
ily was a few aisles away from the attack when she heard screaming that sounded like it was coming from a child.
‘‘A lady was freaking out telling everyone to run,’’ she wrote on Facebook.
The woman said she ran outside along with everyone else and saw a man covered in blood.
Former prison inmate and armed robber Arthur Taylor said he was shopping with his girlfriend when he came across the incident.
‘‘Suddenly, police came powering into the supermarket [car park]. Some poor buggers had been stabbed and people were in shock. ‘‘They took the guy away covered in blood . . . police were all around him. They got there very fast.
‘‘I saw two brought out in stretchers and then police started putting up tape around the place. Then the ambulances began arriving. It brings home how these things affect people. Not just the people hurt but the ripple effects.’’
Countdown’s managing director Spencer Sonn said the company was ‘‘shocked and devastated’’ by the events, and that its priority was ‘‘our injured team members and caring for our wider team in the wake of this extremely traumatic event’’.
‘‘We are deeply upset that customers who tried to help our team members were also injured,’’ Sonn said. ‘‘We have been concerned about the escalating violence towards our team, and this is something we have continued to talk and raise as an issue over the last year.’’
The store would remain closed until at least tomorrow, he said.
A former security guard at the supermarket was unsurprised at the stabbings, saying it was not the first time there had been a serious assault. ‘‘Quite frankly I’m afraid it won’t be the last.’’
The woman said she had been physically attacked on at least three occasions and that she had had to restrain customers and protect staff several times because of threatening behaviour. ‘‘I’ve seen young female staff members pushed and spat on as well as verbally abused.’’
Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins said he was ‘‘deeply shocked and concerned’’ by the events, saying ‘‘This isn’t the kind of thing we expect to happen in our city or indeed anywhere in the country. It could have been any of us, or our families’’.
The supermarket was locked down last night as officers continued to examine the scene
Police appealed for anyone with information including video footage to get in touch.