Desperate manhunt
Ashburton was in lockdown until police apprehended the suspect in yesterday’s double murder. Report by Joelle Dally Blair, Ensor Myles, Nicole Mathewson.
A massive manhunt ended in Ashburton after police arrested a homeless beneficiary who allegedly killed two female Work and Income staff and injured another in a shooting which stunned the town.
About 100 police, supported by helicopters, spent most of yesterday hunting Russel John Tully, 48, and found him on a rural property in Terrace Rd, 15km south of Ashburton near Lake Hood.
He was taken for medical examination and treatment of dog bites.
Tully allegedly entered the Work and Income office in Cass St about 10am wearing a black balaclava and a green army jacket, shooting two employees with a sawn-off shotgun. The third victim was flown to Christchurch Hospital and is in a stable condition. One of the victims was a case manager who was often on the front desk at Work and Income and had strong Maori connections.
Tully recently became homeless after he returned to Ashburton from Australia where he claimed he worked in the mines.
When he spoke to the Ashburton Guardian in August, Tully said he was living rough and hoping for a Housing Corporation house.
He claimed he had returned to Ashburton to die from a debilitating skin disease which limited movement in his joints.
Lately he camped by the Ashburton River near the Ashburton racecourse.
Tully ran from the Work and Income office and made off on a pushbike, leaving his helmet in the street and going east along Moore St towards the Ashburton river.
One witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw a staff member from Work and Income run from the shop after the shooter yelling ‘‘You bastard, you’ve blown her to bits’’.
The witness said he stopped his van in the middle of the road when he saw a man in a black balaclava with a shotgun on his back walk into the Work and Income office.
A witness, inside the office during the shooting, told the local Ashburton Guardian he felt the air ‘‘whoosh’’ past his head in the shooting and followed Tully outside. He saw Tully put the firearm in his backpack.
The Press understands Tully was trespassed from the Work and Income office last month.
Ashburton District Mayor Angus McKay said he felt ‘‘weak at the knees’’ when he heard what had happened.
‘‘Ashburton is not this kind of town,’’ he said.
Carol Ward and her daughter Sarah said they knew one of the women killed in the morning’s shooting.
‘‘She’s a very nice lady – she’s very firm in the job that she does. It’s a loss to the welfare system,’’ Carol Ward said.
‘‘She’s been in there many years.’’ Chalmers Ave resident Wayne Williams said the events would rock the town to its core.
Some elderly residents on the street were too scared to come out of their houses.
The Ministry of Social Development closed all Canterbury Work and Income offices, including Timaru, after the shooting. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett flew to Ashburton yesterday.