Darwin shooting: Chilling warning of alleged gunman’s former victim
The brother of alleged Darwin shooter has said his family is “shocked and distressed” about the horrific incident, as the frightening prediction of a man who survived an earlier drug-fuelled violent rampage was revealed.
The previous victim of suspected Darwin gunman Ben Hoffmann urged a judge to lock him up “for a very long time, because he will do worse to someone next time”.
The victim was attacked by Hoffman with a baseball bat during a meth-fulled rampage in 2014, the NT News reports.
Justice Jenny Blokland sentenced Hoffmann to six years’ jail, with a four year non-parole period over the rampage in which he smashed up two cars, unlawfully entered two houses and twice struck the fleeing victim.
The news comes as Hoffmann’s brother, Clinton - a well-known Darwin businessman - released a statement on behalf of his family following the shocking incident.
When surrounded by police, Hoffmann ignored commands to drop the bat and had to be tasered, as he was last night.
During sentencing proceedings, Justice Blokland said the victim told her his attacker “needs to be put away for a very long time, because he will do worse to someone next time”.
She described Hoffman’s offending as “a shocking violent rampage”.
Court records approved for release by the Chief Justice of the Northern Territory Supreme Court reveal Hoffmann’s 24-year criminal history and a life addled with drug abuse and violence, the NT News reports.
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In a statement, Clinton Hoffmann said: “There is public speculation that the offender was my brother Ben Hoffmann.
“It is important at this time to allow the proper and thorough investigation of these matters by the Northern Territory police and I do not wish to do or say anything that might interfere with or compromise that investigation.
“Having said that, I wish to express my, and my family’s deepest condolences to all of those affected by those events including the families and friends of those who tragically lost their lives, the injured woman and those who came into harm’s way.
“We are as shocked and distressed about these events as the community around us.
“In the fullness of time, it may be appropriate to say more.
“At present, I thank my friends and colleagues for their understanding and their expression of support, especially to me, my mother and other members of my family.
VICTIM IDENTIFIED AS PAROLE SYSTEM REVIEW ANNOUNCED
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner today confirmed a review of the Territory’s parole system.
Hoffmann is in police custody and police are planning to charge him with four counts of murder after last night’s mass shooting in Darwin.
The development comes as the identity of one of the shooting victims was revealed and authorities desperately hunted for a motive.
Taxi driver Hassan Baydoun, 32, was one of four people killed in the shocking incident. An injured woman is in a stable condition in hospital, the NT News reports.
The heavily-tattooed shooting suspect, Mr Hoffman, is well known to local police and has links to outlaw motorcycle gangs.
Northern Territory officials said today there were still eight active crime scenes, and added Mr Hoffmann was released on 23 “strict” parole conditions in January.
Among them was a curfew which stated the suspect needed to be home between 10pm and 6am. Officials confirmed he had broken this once previously by less than an hour, and was subject to a 14-day custodial sentence.
The weapon involved in the shooting was believed to have been stolen, and police are facing questions about why it took so long to track Mr Hoffmann down while he was wearing an ankle monitor.
Authorities also believe the alleged gunman was trying to locate “certain individuals”.
Mr Baydoun, who was caught in the crossfire, moved to Australia 10 years ago to study, and graduated last year with a Master of Information Technology (software engineering) from Charles Darwin University.
“The motivation which kept him going while being away from all his loved ones was to make a better future,” his cousin Abdallah Salman told the NT News.
“He was one of the greatest people I knew, I believe he was taken away too soon from us, making one less of a true human being in this rotting world.”
His employer, Blue Taxi Company paid tribute to one of its “beloved drivers”.
“Last night in a terrible unprecedented mass shooting, never before seen in our home town, Blue Taxis lost one of their long term beloved drivers,” it said in a statement.
“Our Company is heartbroken and his colleagues are in a state of shock. This is not what our city stands for.”
Fronting reporters this morning, NT Corrections Commissioner Scott McNairn stopped short of admitting it was a mistake to release Mr Hoffmann on parole.
“I think we need to review and I’ve alluded to the fact that the Parole Board chairman will do a detailed review on this individual and this case but I’m not prepared to say it’s a failure at this point in time,” Mr McNairn said.
NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said authorities were talking to a number of people associated with Mr Hoffman, but no charges had been laid as yet.
When quizzed about why it took an hour to track the suspect down while he was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, Mr Kershaw dodged the question.
“That’s part of the parole. It’s not a tactical tool, if that makes sense, for police. We’re able to use it now that we have downloaded the information,” he said.
He added police hadn’t established the suspect’s motivations, but believed he was looking for “certain individuals”.
The weapon involved in the shocking crime - a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun - was also believed to have been stolen about 22 years ago in 1997, authorities said.
WHAT EYEWITNESSES SAW
Darwin locals have been left in tears as they recalled how the alleged gunman went on his “insane” shooting spree, killing people in his path.
Matthew James was standing in a carpark near the Palms Hotel when it all began, where he helped a woman who was shot.
“It was just surreal,” he told Nine’s Today program.
“All of a sudden there were these 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.
“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 told AAP the woman injured 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 said.
The woman told Mr James the shooter had been going from room to room, firing his gun and shouting the name of a man - Alex.
“It just seems so insane,” Mr James said.
He said he met the gunman about 10 years ago, and claimed he was always “off the rails”.
“I remember one time at an afterparty, he took a gas bottle and put it at the front door of this party and said ‘if anyone leaves I’m going to shoot the gas bottle,’ Mr James claimed.
Witness Leah Potter told the ABC she also helped the woman who had been shot in the legs at the Palm Hotel before she was taken away by an ambulance.
“I was in the carpark (of a neighbouring hotel) when I heard what I thought were fireworks going off, really loud cracking, banging fireworks,” she said.
“And then a man came running with a woman in his arms from next door which is the Palms Motel, which is the motel next to my motel, and he just dropped her on the footpath right in front of us.
“I ran and got some towels and wrapped up her legs, she had little holes all in her skin on both her legs and she was bleeding everywhere.”
The NT News reports that Darwin recycling worker Johnny Reid was watching TV when he came into contact with the alleged gunman.
He said the door of his worksite unit in Woolner was knocked down at about 6pm last night.
“He busted in and looked right at me,” he said.
“I looked at him and thought: ‘f**k this is it’.
“I thought I was dead for sure.
“I asked him what he was doing but he went right past me and shot my mate.
“His body is still in there.”
A man who was at home with his young son on Gardens Hill Crescent, The Gardens, 500 metres from the Palms Motel, said he heard eight shots from the townhouse complex next door.
“Up to eight shots, a few different volleys three or four, then another three or four,” he said.
“I thought it was firecrackers as we are coming up to Territory Day.
“It was really loud because it was so close.”
The father said he did not know if anyone had been injured next door.
“It’s shocking and a bit surreal,” he said.
Chris Dalgleish, who was having a beer on the balcony of the Frontier Hotel pub across the road from the Palms Motel, 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.
He is described as caucasian and was wearing high-vis workwear. The 45-year-old is now in custody. He was released on parole in January.
He is expected to be charged on four counts of murder. His motive is still unclear.
Northern Territory’s Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the suspect was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet as he evaded officers through Darwin.
After being on the run for more than an hour, he called the NT Police Duty Superintendent and asked to be placed in protective custody, Mr Kershaw confirmed.
“We do believe he was trying to hand himself in,” Mr Kershaw said.
“Unfortunately and sadly four people have lost their lives this evening.”
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner confirmed the death toll from the rampage was four after earlier reports that up to five people had been killed and that police did not believe the shooting was a terrorist attack.
Television footage showed Mr Hoffmann on the ground after being dragged from under his white Toyota Hilux dual cab ute, kicking his legs at officers from the Northern Territory Police Territory Response Group.
THE ACCUSED GUNMAN’S PAST
The NT News reports he is the brother of Clint Hoffman, a well-known member of Darwin’s business community.
Ben had been working for a local roofing company until he was recently sacked. His mother organised the job for him through a family friend earlier this year.
His former boss, who asked not to be named, said: “His mum rang me and said: ‘Can you please help him? Give him a second chance in life’.”
“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 can’t see how I this could have happened.”
The alleged shooter drove a white Toyota Hilux ute borrowed from a friend’s plumbing company during the rampage, and sources told The NT News the alleged shooter fell into a bad crowd during a stint in a Darwin rehab clinic.
Witnesses told the ABC he walked into the Palms Motel in the Darwin suburb of Woolner while holding a pump-action shotgun and shot at a hotel room door before fleeing the scene.
The alleged shooter then allegedly fled the motel scene down to an apartment complex on Garden Hills Crescent in The Gardens, where one person is believed to have been killed.
The alleged shooter was eventually caught by heavily armed police, who were wearing body armour and carrying rifles.
They surrounded his car in the middle of an intersection before he was tasered.
He was shirtless, was writhing around on the ground and screaming as a number of officers moved to restrain him.
The suspect had remained at large for approximately an hour, with road blocks in place around the city.
PM SENDS MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCE
Speaking at London’s Savoy Hotel, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was a “terrible act of violence”.
“I want to extend my deep condolences and sympathy to all the people in the Territory, particularly in Darwin,” he said.
“This is a very tight community and I know they will be rocked by these events. Our advice is this is not a terrorist attack. There is nothing to suggest that is the case whatsoever.
“The true motivations of this criminal and violent act will become better known. There is a person in custody and they will work through those processes.
“In the meantime. I think it’s important that every one in Darwin everyone in the Territory understands the thoughts of Australians wherever they are … they will be thinking very much of their fellow Australians in the Territory.”
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