Aramoana massacre
| Aramoana massacre | |
|---|---|
Anti-Terrorist Squad officers crouch on Muri Street (right), before storming Gray's beach house (left)
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| Location | Aramoana, New Zealand |
| Date | 13–14 November 1990 7:30 p.m.–5:50 p.m. |
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Attack type
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Spree shooting, siege, shootout, arson |
| Weapons |
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| Deaths | 14 (including the perpetrator) |
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Non-fatal injuries
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3 |
| Perpetrator | David Malcolm Gray |
The Aramoana massacre was a spree shooting that occurred on 13 November 1990 in the small seaside township of Aramoana, northeast of Dunedin, New Zealand. Resident David Gray, after a verbal dispute with his next-door neighbour, killed 13 people, including local police Sergeant Stewart Guthrie, one of the first responders to the reports of a shooting. After a careful house-by-house search the next day, police officers led by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (now known as the Special Tactics Group) located Gray and shot him dead as he came out of a house firing from the hip. It is the deadliest criminal shooting in New Zealand history.
The massacre began on 13 November at 7:30 p.m. when Gray confronted neighbour Garry Holden about one of Holden's dogs wandering onto his property. After the confrontation, Gray went into his house, retrieved a Norinco 84S semi-automatic rifle, walked outside and shot Holden multiple times in his chest, before walking over to him and shooting him fatally through the head.
Nearby were three young girls: Holden's two daughters, Chiquita and Jasmine, and his girlfriend Julie Ann Bryson's adopted daughter, Rewa. The girls ran into Holden's house as Gray walked onto Holden's property. He quickly found Chiquita and shot her once in the chest with a Squires and Bingham .22-calibre semi-automatic sporting rifle, the bullet lodging in her abdomen.
The wounded girl fled past her father's body to Bryson's nearby house, while Gray set the Holden house on fire. Bryson, realising that Rewa and Jasmine were still in the Holden house, drove her van there with Chiquita in an attempt to save the girls. Gray shot at the van as it passed the house, which was by then ablaze.
Gray started shooting indiscriminately, targeting a utility vehicle full of locals who had seen the Holden house burning and stopped to help. He first shot Vanessa Percy several times in the back as she ran down the street in terror; she died a few hours later at the scene. He then turned to the three children. He killed the two boys, Leo Wilson and Dion Percy. The boys' sister, Stacey, was critically injured by a bullet to her abdomen, but survived. Ross Percy, the children's father, who had been driving them home after a day fishing when they saw the fire, was shot in the head, fatally. Next, Aleki Tali, was killed. Gray then entered the home of Tim Jamieson, killing him and another elderly local, former Green Island mayor Vic Crimp. The next victim was James Dickson, who was looking for his dog. Eva Helen Dickson, James' mother, and neighbour Chris Cole went into the road to see what the noise was. Gray shot at both of them, wounding Cole who was in a phone booth calling the police and forcing Mrs Dickson to dive for cover. Mrs Dickson, who had recently had a hip replacement and was unable to walk without assistance, pulled herself along on her stomach using her arms and feet in a ditch to get inside and called 1-1-1 (emergency telephone number). She then crawled back to Cole to tell him help was coming. By this stage, it was getting dark and the dispatcher advised her to stay inside. Mrs Dickson later received the George Medal for bravery. Help arrived too late for Cole, who died in the hospital.
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