Auckland shooting: Matu Reid, the ‘nice young man’ behind gun attack

Relatives of a woman the Auckland gunman assaulted in 2021 say he had served jail time before, and became so aggressive they feared he’d never be rehabilitated.

Matu Tangi Matua Reid, 24, went on the rampage in an Auckland construction site. Picture: Twitter

Relatives of a woman the Auckland gunman assaulted in a domestic violence incident in 2021 say he had served jail time in the past, and had become so aggressive they feared he would never be rehabilitated.

Matu Tangi Matua Reid, 24 killed two fellow workers and wounded at least 10 others in a 40 minute rampage at a construction site in downtown Auckland on Thursday morning as workers were arriving for the day, and hours before New Zealand was due to play Norway in the opening game of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

NZ police have confirmed his two victims were male construction workers in their 40s who worked alongside Reid. The men’s bodies were recovered from the site on Friday evening.

NZ media has also reported that Reid had been fired from a job at the site the day before he took a pump action shotgun to the building at One Queen St and started firing.

Construction workers hid behind pallets as police attempted to protect them. Picture: Stuff.co.nz

Reid, who had a history of family violence, was serving a five month home detention sentence, and wearing an ankle bracelet at the time of the attack. He had an exemption to travel between home and his job at the construction site.

His domestic violence victim’s relative told the Stuff website that when the news of the shooting broke: “It did go through my mind that it could have something to do with him.”

He said Reid wasn’t in a relationship with the woman, but she had taken him in after he’d been released from prison, in the hope that she could rehabilitate him.

”He just seemed like a nice young man who’d got on the wrong side of the law and life,” the relative said. ”We gave him a home, all the love a family does, he was brought into the family and this is what happened.”.

Reid lived with the family for nearly a year but his behaviour became so aggressive they became “really wary” of him.

”Things he would say, how he would act,” the relative said. “He would try to do something and he’d fail at it and he’d get angry really fast.”

Fans observe a minute of silence for victims of the shooting in Auckland ahead of the match between New Zealand and Norway at Eden Park. Picture: AFP.

Weeks before Reid assaulted the woman, leaving her in hospital with a fractured neck, he had lost a job on another construction site.

The relative said he should have been jailed for the assault and for a separate attempt to burn their house down. Instead, the judge sentencing him heard that he had been exposed to domestic and physical abuse and decided that another prison sentence would be “counter-productive”.

“When I read about (the shooting) yesterday, it was just so sad to know that, that he was let out,” the relative said. “He should have never been let out as far as I’m concerned.

”I wasn’t surprised when I found out what happened, but it brought it all back. It’s a harrowing time.”

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said on Friday the priority for police was to positively identify the two men who Reid killed, and police were due to speak with their families. The men’s bodies were found on a lower level of the site; eye witnesses suggested Reid might have been targeting individuals.

Multiple workers said Reid went straight to the third floor, where the offices of construction company LT McGuinness were situated. One builder said he saw Reid “aiming at people” on that floor.

Reid’s body was found in a lift shaft where he had barricaded himself in: Commissioner Coster said it was likely he died while exchanging fire with Armed Offenders Squads and the Special Tactics Group.

Auckland District Commander Sunny Patel added: “Three other people injured in the incident remain in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and two people have been discharged from hospital.”

NZ Police Association President Chris Cahill said the wounded police officer had suffered significant injuries.

“He’s got some significant injuries that will take quite some time to recover from. My thoughts are really with him and his whānau, and of course, also with the three whānau who are grieving after the tragedy yesterday,” Mr Cahill said.

Mr Patel described yesterday’s shootings as “incredibly traumatic for all involved”.

“We know New Zealanders have many questions about what occurred. I can assure you that a large investigation team is working to provide answers to those questions, particularly for the families of the two men who lost their lives and the other workers caught up in this tragedy,” he said.

Investigations are set to continue, with questions remaining over how Reid, who didn’t have a firearms licence, obtained a gun – particularly given his history of violence. There are also questions over how he was able to go on a mass shooting while wearing an ankle bracelet.