Aramoana Massacre,1990.The Aramoana Massacre was a mass murder that occured on 13 November 1990 in the small seaside township of Aramoana, New Zealand. Resident David Malcolm Gray, a 33 year old unemployed man began discriminately shooting neighbours and people in his township with a scoped semi-automatic rifle. David Gray started the mass murder after a verbal dispute with his next door neighbor. Gray shot neighbors,a family visiting the township, kiling thirteen people, including local police Sergeant Stewart Gutherie, the first responder to the reports of a shooting.
The massacre began on 13 november 1990 at 7:30pm when Gray confronted his neighbour Garry Holden about one of Holdens daughters wandering onto his property. After the confrontation, Gray went into his house, retrieved a Norinco AK-47 assault rifle, walked outside and shot Holden dead. There were three young girls nearby including Holdens daughters who witnessed the shooting. The girls ran into Holdens house as Gray walked onto Holdens property. Gray quickly found found one of the young girls and shot her through her left arm and chest, the bullet lodging in her abdomen. The wounded girl fled out of the house and went to the nearby house which was owned by Julie Ann Bryson. Gray set the Holdens house on fire with two young girls still stuck inside. Julie Ann Bryson attempted to try rescue the girls from the blazing house but Gray shot at the van until they had to drive away. Gray started shooting indiscriminately , targeting vehicles full of locals who stopped to help after seeing the house burning. Gray shot a woman, two young boys who were down the street running away but their sister was only shot in the abdomen and had severe wounds. Gray shot and killed two fishermen and another elderly local. The next victim was a resident of Aramoana who was searching for his dog around the streets, he was shot, causing other residents to wander to the street and see what the noise was. The residents tried to help but were shot and wounded, causing an old woman who had just received a hip replacement to crawl and drag herself along the road to try get help. The first respnder police man Sergeant Guthrie was on a man chase trying to find Gray around the town ship of Aramoana, when he found David Gray by the sand dunes, Gray screamed out while coming out of the darkness "Don't Shoot!", leading Sergeant Guthrie to believe he was surrendering. However,Gray suddenly fired several times,one shot striking Guthrie in the head,killing him instantly. The Aramoana township was sealed off down the only road to get out of Aramoana and an armored car car was securing it off. Commissioner of Police John Jamieson authorised the special Tactics Group, the specialist counter terrorist unit, to travel to dunedin and locate David Malcolm Gray. Group members from Christchurch,Dunedin,Wellington and Auckland were sent to Aramoana and caused controversy when the aircraft was not going to let them bring firearms on the plane. The air force had been flown into Dunedin and private news helicopters were shot at by Gray. The groups received fire orders "If he has a firearm, he is to be shot", meanwhile Gray had entered a crib,eaten a small meal and gone to sleep. The specialist terrorist group first went to grays house, passing bodies all over the street. after clearing neighboring houses they put a stun grenade into Grays,blowing out the windows,followed by tear gas, they then realized it was empty. The group worked down the road,checking every single home for Gray, they discovered Sergeant Guthrie's revolver in a garden and a woman who had been hiding under a table for more than twenty hours. After a long day searching house to house, the Special Terrorist Group checked a crib with a broken window on the north eastern side of the township. The crib had large hedges on both sides,and a fibrolite shed at the rear. The groups spotted Gray breifly at the window, the next battle began. Peter McCarthy another police officer alongside of Tim Ashton said "We couldn't see Gray, he was inside. All I could see were the yellow curtains. To this day I can remember the patterns. I felt very relaxed but I thought in my mind that i was going to die and there's nothing i could do about it". Police put a stun grenade through the window, but it bounced off a mattress that Gray had placed as a barricade. "The Special Terrorist Group opened fire, both sides shooting for two minutes, Gray walking around inside firing randomly". Gray shot an STG officer in the ankle and continued to shoot at anyone without any hesitation swinging his semi automatic rifle from side to side and screaming "kill me,fucking kill me". Officers said that "there was this constant hail of bullets. It was incredible. It was all happening so quick and he was only metres away from all of us. i didnt know whether to stand high or low". David Gray was firing and pulling the trigger as fast as he could at officers Ashton and McCarthy until he was shot and his leg buckled and collapsed. "Gray, an emaciated 57kgs at the time,had taken bullets through the eye which had spiraled through his brain and out of his neck. He had bullets to the chest,but he was full of adrenaline and broke out of the plastic handcuffs the police had put on him as he lay wounded.He died soon after". The massacre lasted from the 13th November 7:30pm until 5:50pm on the 14th of November 1990. Mostly all the officers at the scene were advised to see a psychologist. |
|
Bibliography~
Murderpedia~ http://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/gray-david.htm
Wikipedia
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/63230292/Flashback-The-Aramoana-massacre
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/aramoana-massacre-memorial
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/13-people-killed-in-mass-murder-at-aramoana-on-otago-harbour
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/308398/campbell-recalls-aramoana-student-riots-and-going-undercover
Wikipedia
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/63230292/Flashback-The-Aramoana-massacre
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/aramoana-massacre-memorial
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/13-people-killed-in-mass-murder-at-aramoana-on-otago-harbour
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/308398/campbell-recalls-aramoana-student-riots-and-going-undercover
|
By~ Tess Harding
|