Police pulled over accused Darwin gunman hours before mass shooting
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 Hoffman was first picked up at 10.52am on Tuesday for driving 14km/h over the speed limit near Humpty Doo in a silver coloured Proton car.
"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 told reporters on Thursday.
The vehicle was then twice detected speeding at 11am and 12.25pm around Pinelands. Later, about 4pm, Hoffmann was at Jefferies Road, Humpty Doo when a member of the public called police. He left soon after.
Alleged gunman suffered apparent knife wounds
Hoffmann 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 is on Thursday being formally interviewed by major crime detectives.
"It is also anticipated that later today he will be charged with four counts of murder," Mr Kershaw said.
The shooting rampage has raised questions about why Hoffmann was released in January after serving a non-parole period of four years of his six-year sentence, given his extensive criminal history.
His alleged act of violence on Tuesday, 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.
Hoffmann's parole was formally revoked on Thursday.
"Once he is discharged from hospital, he will be moved to Darwin Correctional Centre and placed in high security, be isolated from the rest of the prison population and classified as 'high risk'," NT Commissioner for Corrections Scott McNairn said on Thursday.
"There will be an individual management plan aligned to this individual."
Hoffmann had breached parole before
Hoffmann 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.
The deadly violence started at 5.39pm Tuesday at the Palm Motel where Hoffmann allegedly shot and killed taxi driver Hassan Baydoun, 33, who was on a meal break.
Mr Baydoun's cousin Abdallah Salman said his relative did not know the shooter and was accidentally caught up in the shootings as the alleged gunman went from room to room firing his gun and shouting for Alex.
A 23-year-old woman at the Palm Hotel was shot in the legs and remains in hospital in a stable condition.
Over the next hour, the shooter went on to kill 52-year-old casino security guard Rob Courtney at a home in Jolly Street, Woolner, a unnamed 76-year-old in Gardens Hill Crescent, and Michael Sisois, 57, in the car park of the Buff Club in Stuart Park.
A memorial service for the victims will be held at the Uniting Church in Darwin's CBD at 7pm Thursday.
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