Accused Darwin gunman has 'bikie links' and lost his job days before mass shooting

The man accused of shooting four men dead and injuring a woman in a bloody rampage in Darwin had reportedly lost his job just days before.

The 45-year-old suspected gunman, who has been identified as Ben Hoffmann, was arrested after being on the run for about an hour following the mass shooting in and around a hotel in the CBD on Tuesday.

The NT News reports the alleged gunman, who was on parole, had been given a second chance at life after he was released from prison, but was sacked from a job his mum got him through a family friend.

According to the newspaper, the local roofing company fired him because he was not reliable in showing up for work.

“His mum rang me and said: ‘Can you please help him? Give him a second chance in life’,” the boss told the NT News.

“He wasn’t coming in to work and I basically said a few days ago – I told him ‘you have to go elsewhere, you have to start looking for other work and start over’.

“I don’t see how this could have happened.”

Detectives to piece together what led to shooting

Detectives on Wednesday will start piecing together the sequence of events, including the motives of the alleged shooter.

Hoffmann was 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 NT Police's Territory Response Group.

The incident started with reports of a man firing shots at Finnis St at about 5.50pm (local time) just outside the Darwin CBD, with the four deaths occurring at the nearby Buffalo Club, Gardens Hill Crescent, the Palms Motel and Jolly Street.

He also tried to enter the Peter McCauley Centre police station to possibly hand himself in, then phoned a duty superintendent who did a "magnificent job in negotiating with him" before the arrest, Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw told reporters.

The alleged shooter has links to an “outlaw motorcycle gang”, is well-known to police with a criminal history, and the incident is not believed to be terror-related.

Mr Kershaw said he was released from prison on parole in January after serving at least a year, was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, and had acted alone on Tuesday.

"He is an individual who is well known to police and has a number of interactions, adverse, with the police force," he said.

"We're still trying to establish the intent and the motivation behind this but all I can say is that, sadly, people have lost their lives this evening."

The man is being held in custody in hospital as a precaution.

Witnesses reveal terror of bloody Darwin rampage

A group of about a dozen men who were friends and relatives of the man who died at the Palms Hotel gathered outside, many in tears.

Local Matthew James helped patch up a woman who had been shot in the leg near the Palms.

She is in hospital in a stable condition, a NT Health spokeswoman said.

"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.' She was hysterical obviously," Mr James told AAP.

The woman who had been shot told Mr James the shooter had been going from room to room, shouting the name of a man he wanted to see and firing his gun.

Chris Dalgleish, who was having a beer on the balcony of the Frontier Hotel pub across the road from the Palms, said people heard shots and raced inside the pub when they realised it was a gun.

"Everyone started jumping inside, then locking doors and windows and went to the back corner," he told AAP.

Speaking in London, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the shooting was a "terrible act of violence".

"I just want to extend my deep condolences and sympathies to all the people in the Territory and particularly in Darwin," Mr Morrison said.

"This is a very tight community and I know they will be rocked by these events."

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said it was a devastating day for the Territory, "this was not the Darwin we know", and his thoughts were with the families and friends of the victims.

with AAP

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