'He walked room to room': How the deadly Darwin mass shooting unfolded
The bloody rampage that left four dead and one injured spanned across a number of separate locations in Darwin’s CBD.
Here’s a timeline of how it unfolded on Tuesday evening.
At 4pm accused gunman Ben Hoffmann, 45, was allegedly seen in the area of Humpty Doo, about 40 kilometres from Darwin’s CBD.
Between 5.30pm and 5.52pm the shooting started to unfold in the state capital city, with reports a man with a pump action shotgun and was firing at Finnis Street.
Later a man’s body was found at the Palms Motel near Finnis Street and McMinn streets.
At Palms Motel, the suspected gunman allegedly walked from room to room opening fire at the motel.
Witnesses said he was searching for someone named “Alex” and “he shot up every room in that place”.
“He got what he wanted and then left in his pick-up. We watched him walk from room to room, shooting every room,” one witness told the ABC.
He also said the victims “had no idea why he was there”.
Police told reporters on Wednesday police had located the man he referred to as Alex interstate and he was not one of the victims.
Darwin local Matthew James was standing at a car park near the Palms Motel when he heard the gunshots.
"Moments later someone came running towards me carrying this woman who was covered in blood, and just basically put her at my feet and she was screaming that she had been shot,” he said.
"The guy that actually carried her up was pretty frantic at the time, saying he had opened the door and there was a gunman there with a shotgun and he proceeded to fire upon anybody inside the building."
Mr James said the woman was hysterical.
"She was caught up in it, she said 'I've been shot, I don't know why, I don't have anything to do with anything',” he explained.
"It just seems so insane."
5.54-5.57pm: Mr Hoffmann then allegedly shot a man dead a Gardens Hill Crescent in Darwin’s CBD.
5.50pm: Mr Hoffmann allegedly moved to the nearby Buffalo Club, where he is accused of claiming another victim.
6.05-6.13pm: The accused gunman then headed to Jolly Street where another man was believed to have been shot.
6.22-6.25pm: Mr Hoffmann allegedly tried to enter the Peter McCauley Centre police station.
Police believe he was possibly trying to hand himself in, then phoned a duty superintendent who did a “magnificent job in negotiating with him” before arrest, NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.
6.44pm: The man was then arrested at the busy Stuart Highway and McMinn Street intersection near where the shootings occurred.
Television footage showed him on the ground after being dragged from under his white dual-cab ute, kicking his legs at officers from the Northern Territory Police Territory Response Group.
Police revealed he was tasered a number of times.
Mr Hoffmann was described as having links to outlaw motorcycle gangs and police said he was released from prison on parole in January after serving at least a year.
He had been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.
"He is an individual who is well known to police and has a number of interactions – adverse – with the police force," Mr Kershaw told reporters on Tuesday night.
The alleged shooter is in hospital, under guard, to assess his mental condition.
The injured woman is also in hospital, in a stable condition.
NT Police have sought forensics and ballistics help from their counterparts in NSW.
With AAP
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