Deadly Shooting Rattles New Zealand On Opening Day Of Women’s World Cup

It was the day New Zealand and Ferns fans had waited years for but instead, Auckland, the host city for the Women’s World Cup opening game, woke up to the sound of gunshots, blaring police sirenes, helicopters circling over downtown, and dozens of heavily armed police officers storming Queen Street as a shooting killed three people, including the shooter, a 24-year-old with “no ideological motive” but who had been on home detention for domestic violence, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Multiple ambulances rushed to the scene and early reports suggested casualties as well as multiple injured people. “This incident unfolded after reports of a person discharging a firearm inside the site on lower Queen Street at around 7.22 am,” said police in a statement.

The shooting took place in the city centre, a stone’s throw from the team hotels of Norway, who play later on Thursday, and the USA, who hours later boarded a bus to team training. Norwegian captain Maren Mjelde said: “Everybody woke up quickly when helicopters were flying outside our hotel windows. A huge amount of police cars passed by. We felt safe the whole time. FIFA has a good security arrangement at the hotel and we have our own security.”

Authorities moved to shut down a part of the city. It was not how Nicky, a cleaner at Commercial Bay building, had imagined the day would start. She had to evacuate and on her way out she heard gunshots. “We were scared,” said Nicky, who preferred to not give her family name. “My colleagues and I thought this is not a safe place to work now. There are incidents here every day – people smoking weed and students doing stuff in washrooms, but this was major. It was scary.”

New Zealand tightened its gun laws with a registry after the 2019 massacre in Christchurch when a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers. “It’s still a safe country as you can’t see people carrying guns but people are able to acquire guns,” said Nicky. “It makes me think that safety is going down and that’s not good. This will alarm people and New Zealand should be stricter, even more so with international visitors here and the Women’s World Cup.”

As events unfolded, authorities urged people to avoid the area and stay indoors. The mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown tweeted: “This is a scary situation for Aucklanders on their Thursday morning commute to work. Please stay at home, avoid travel into the city centre.”

Wearing a grey pullover with the Women’s World Cup logo, Cherry Andrews was on the way to the fan fest when she encountered downtown cordoned-off. Cherry and her daughter Riyna, 12, who plays football back home in Canada, are visiting New Zealand for the tournament. “It was all blocked off, including all the way to the Marina. They won’t want a lot of people gathering in this area. It’s sad.”

“Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff has attempted to engage with him,” detailed police. “Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.”

New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins said that it was his understanding that there was no identified “political or ideological motivation”. Hipkins and his government spoke to FIFA and the tournament will proceed as planned with the opening day seeing both co-hosts in action. In a statement, FIFA said that “the participating teams in close proximity to this incident are being supported in relation to any impact that may have taken place.”

In two days’ time, the defending world champions the USA open their campaign against Vietnam. “Regarding the incident in downtown Auckland, all of our USWNT players and staff are accounted for and safe,” said US Soccer in a statement. “Our security team is in communication with local authorities and we are proceeding with our daily schedule.”

And so was Andrews, who didn’t want the shooting to dominate the experience of attending the Women’s World Cup. “We are close to the United States and we see these incidents all the time,” said Andrews. “It doesn’t change my perception of New Zealand at all. This could happen anywhere. We are here to have fun and celebrate the unity of the World Cup.”

Andrews turned away in the general direction of the US team hotel and went to pick up her daughter.

FIFA have not yet replied to a request for comment.