The unanswered questions of the Darwin shooting
Up to 100 police are combing eight active crime scenes as they frantically seek answers as to why alleged shooter Ben Hoffmann went on his rampage with an illegal firearm.
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Darwin has been rocked by a mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of four men and left a woman lying in hospital with gunshot wounds.
Police are now scouring eight separate crime scenes across the city in frantic efforts to discover how this happened.
So far we know the alleged gunman is 45-year-old Ben Hoffman and the first shots were fired at 5.45pm last night.
From there the first triple-0 call was made to report gunshots at Finniss St.
Witnesses claimed to see a caucasian man wearing high-vis workwear leaving Palms Motel. Those who saw the man claimed he was carrying a high powered shotgun.
Soon after the first fatality was confirmed when a man’s body was discovered at the hotel.
From there, we are left with four other crime scenes and the details of how the massacre unfolded are blurry.
These are some of the questions that still need to be answered in the aftermath of the alleged shooter’s rampage.
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1. THE OFFICIAL TIMELINE
On Wednesday morning police started to share what they knew in terms of the timeline of the killings.
The NT police commissioner said the accused was first at small town Humpty Doo, 40km from Darwin, at 4pm.
We know after the shooting at Palms Motel the shooter jumped in a ute and started driving north along the Stuart Highway.
We know the gunman visited three other locations within an hour of the first shots:
Gardens Hill Crescent in The Gardens was the second stop at 5.54pm to 5.57pm.
The third stop was sports bar The Buff Club at 5.59pm and Jolly St in Woolner between 6.05pm and 6.13pm. One man was killed at each of these locations.
What we don’t know is why the gunman picked these locations and whether his victims were deliberately targeted.
He then went to Peter Macauley Centre in Berrimah between 6:22pm and 6:25pm. An hour after the first shots were fired, at 6.44pm the accused was arrested on the Stuart Highway again, near Daly St bridge.
Television footage showed him on the ground after being dragged from the ute, kicking his legs at officers from the Northern Territory Police Territory Response Group.
Police later confirmed the accused was tasered.
Police claim the accused had spoken with police, they believe he may have been trying to hand himself in — we don’t know why he may have wanted to do this.
2. THE SUSPECT
What we can tell you is the accused, Ben Hoffman, is a Darwin local.
NT police say they do not believe more than one shooter was involved.
Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has confirmed the heavily tattooed man is “well known to police” and in custody at the Royal Darwin Hospial.
Commissioner Kershaw said the accused had been released from prison in January and was currently on parole.
He said the man “may have associated with those entities” when asked if he was part of an outlaw motorcycle gang.
Police later confirmed the accused had been sentenced to six years’ behind bars with a four year non parole period. He was released with 23 strict parole conditions including a home curfew from 10pm to 6am.
Officials have since confirmed there will be a review into all offenders on parole and subject to electronic monitoring in the NT.
We don’t know what he was jailed for. We also don’t know the extent of his alleged bikie links or whether they extended interstate.
A former friend of Mr Hoffman told Nine Newspapers he “was just a normal guy growing up”.
“At some stage, maybe 15 or 16 years ago, we drifted to a normal life, and he drifted to a life of drugs.” he said. Police said the accused had been subjected to random drug tests as part of his parole conditions but never returned a negative result.
3. THE MOTIVE
The Major Crime Unit are now leading the investigation to establish motive. The officer in charge is Commander Travis Wurst along with investigating officer superintendent Martin Dole.
About 100 police officers are scouring eight crime scenes, including a Coles Express where he was arrested.
The NT News has discovered accused was the troubled son of a local family. It’s understood he had worked for a local roofing company but he had recently lost his job for failing to show up to work. His mum had reportedly got him the job.
“His mum rang me and said: ‘Can you please help him? Give him a second chance in life’.” the man’s former boss told NT News.
The alleged shooter had reportedly borrowed a friend’s ute to travel to different locations during the rampage.
“I’m not going to speculate, and that’s something we’ve got to work through with our detectives,” Commissioner Kershaw said.
“This is one individual who has acted individually, and has unfortunately taken the action he has.”
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner confirmed the shooting is not being treated as terrorism.
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4. THE VICTIMS
We do not know who the victims are yet and how they’re connected if at all to him.
Police indicated today that the accused was looking for one individual but also said some of the victims had no connection to him at all.
It had been claimed the accused was looking for a person named ‘Alex’ but police have confirmed that person has been located safe and well interstate.
One man, a local recycling worker confirmed his friend was killed in the massacre.
Johnny Reid told NT News he was working at the unit on Jolly Rd when the door was knocked down and he was faced with a man with a gun.
He said he was spared but his friend was shot four times.
Mr Reid escaped by climbing over a fence and fleeing the scene.
Earlier a chef named Maxime Campart witnessed the first shooting unfold at the Palms Motel.
He was inside a bottle shop across the road when he heard two gunshots.
Mr Campart told News.com a woman had warned him to hide.
He claimed at one point he saw a man with a “shotgun in his hand” standing outside the motel.
So far four people have been confirmed dead and multiple others injured. One woman was shot in the leg.
5. HOW DID HE GET A GUN?
If the gunman was “well known to police” as they say, how did he have access to a shotgun?
Commissioner Kershaw confirmed the accused had been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet a the time but police weren’t able to access information from it to track him real-time.
Police have confirmed the firearm used was an illegal pump-action 12-gauge shotgun. They suspect it may have been stolen as far back as 1997 based on serial number data.
We also don’t know how he was able to travel to five separate locations in the span of an hour, ultimately killing four people.
Mass shootings are incredibly rare in Australia due to the nations strict gun laws.
In many cases where shooting massacres happen globally the world points to us as the example that leads the way on gun laws and prevent these sorts of incidents.
As the story unfolds this incident has prompted questions from across the world as to how this could have happened here at all.
6. WITNESSES NEEDED
Police want to hear from any witnesses or anyone with knowledge about the crime.
“I would encourage the public out there and Territorians to please contact us on 1800 333 000 or the Crime Stoppers website or 131444 with any information in relation that they may have on mobile phones, dashcam or CCTV, or they may be witnesses to these events,” the commissioner said. Police have published photos of three vehicles the accused may have used on the day of the massacre and they are particularly interested in learning more about those.
The details of these are: Toyota Hilux, NT register CC26QE, red Commodore NT registration CC01IR and a silver Proton, NT registration CD49OU.
Originally published as The unanswered questions of the Darwin shooting
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