The two men who were gunned down in a horrific shooting at an Auckland construction site have been identified.
Solomona To’oto’o, 45, and Tupuga Sipiliano, 44, were killed when gunman Matu Tangi Matua Reid, 24, opened fire with a pump-action shotgun inside a high-rise building in downtown Auckland in New Zealand at around 7.20am on Thursday.
Ten people were injured during the 40-minute shooting spree, with three suffering serious injuries.
Reid was later found dead after barricading himself in an elevator shaft and engaging police in a shootout.
Mr To’oto’o and Mr Sipiliano were formally identified as the two deceased victims on Sunday.
Tupuga Sipiliano (pictured), 44, and Solomona To’oto’o, 45, have been identified as the two victims of the shooting at a building site in downtown Auckland on Thursday morning
‘Police extend sincere condolences to the families, who are grieving the loss of their loved ones,’ said Detective Superintendent Ross McKay after police completed formal identification processes.
The two men were from Wattle Downs.
Family and friends shared tributes to Mr Sipiliano on social media.
‘Gone too soon. Rest in peace,’ wrote one loved one on Facebook.
Police confirmed that the two men were work colleagues of Reid, but it’s not yet known what the gunman’s motivation was for the shooting.
New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told TVNZ’s Breakfast said the horror rampage may have been influenced by ‘workplace tension’.
Out of the 10 people who were injured, four remain in hospital receiving treatment.
One male police officer who was shot has had surgery and is recovering in hospital while another officer is recovering at home.
Witnesses claimed Reid had targeted his victims after going straight to the third floor of the building site to the office of construction company, LT McGuinness.
Matu Tangi Matua Reid (pictured), 24, stormed the site with a pump-action shotgun and went on a shooting spree before he was gunned down during an exchange with police
Ten people were injured during the 40-minute spree, with three suffering serious injuries (pictured, workmen were forced to take cover behind piles of building materials)
One man told the New Zealand media that Reid had been ‘aiming at people’ during the rampage.
A worker at the site said that he appeared ‘angry’ and was ‘yelling out to people’ as if he was looking for someone.
‘I can remember him yelling ‘So what you going to do to me now…what can you do?’ they told the NZ Herald.
‘The two people he shot was like he wanted to kill those two people.’
Reid had reportedly been sacked from his job on the building site the day before the shooting.
It’s also been revealed that he was being monitored by correctional services via an ankle bracelet at the time he stormed the site.
Reid had been given special permission to attend the worksite as part of a home detention sentence he had been handed for committing a serious assault in 2021.
He was ordered to serve a five-month detention sentence after he slapped, kicked and strangled a woman he was in an intimate relationship with at the time.
He was sentenced in March on charges of injuring with intent to injure, wilful damage, male assaults female and impeding breathing.
A team of specialist police wearing bullet-proof vests and black helmets prepare to confront the shooter inside the complex (pictured)
The gunman fired at police and injured a male officer. The officer is in hospital and is receiving urgent surgery (pictured, an officer is escorted to an ambulance by police)
The assault on September 16, 2021 left his partner with a fractured bone in her neck.
Sentencing notes from Judge Stephen Bonnar KC reveal that shortly before midnight Reid became angered by something his partner said, leading to a verbal altercation.
He then pushed the woman off a chair and threw at object at her head that struck and injured her right eye, before threatening to ‘take out’ her and her entire family.
Reid then kicked the woman, causing her to fall backwards onto the bed where he seized her throat and cut off her breathing for up to 10 seconds.
He continued to threaten his partner, telling her: ‘You don’t know what I’m capable of’ as he grabbed a pair of scissors and pushed the handles into her side.
The violent assault culminated in a final terrifying threat from Reid, who had been staying with his partner and her family in Auckland’s North Shore at the time.
‘I’ve had enough, it’s time, I’m going to take you all,’ he told the woman.
When the woman returned to her home with police later that night, she discovered Reid had set fire to a small wicker basket inside her bedroom.
Judge Bonnar notes the woman had sustained a fracture in one of the bones in her neck, a swollen and black eye as well as bruising and scratches.
Reid denied any wrongdoing when he was questioned by police, telling officers the woman’s injuries had been sustained during ‘rough sex’.
New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told TVNZ’s Breakfast said the horror rampage may have been influenced by ‘workplace tension’ (pictured, police and workers at the scene)
Reid was being monitored by correctional services via an ankle bracelet and had been given special permission to attend the worksite as part of a home detention sentence he had been handed for committing a serious assault on a partner in 2021 (pictured, police at the scene)
His criminal record shows a previous assault from 2020, which he was serving a community-based sentence for at the time of the incident.
Reid had previously been ordered to attend anger-management sessions.
A cultural report handed to the court revealed Reid had witnessed domestic violence and physical abuse from an early age, causing him to run away from home.
Judge Bonnar noted that sending Reid to jail could ‘set you down the wrong path’.
Instead, the 24-year-old was sentenced to five months home sentence to be served at a Flat Bush property, in Auckland’s southeast.
The conditions of the home detention sentence to attend a non-violence program, not use alcohol or drugs and not associate with the victim .
A probation officer had recommended home detention as a satisfactory sentence after deciding Reid had a low risk of reoffending.
Acting National Commissioner of Corrections Sean Mason said an internal review would be undertaken by the Chief Probation Officer.
‘While our full review is yet to be undertaken, initial information suggests that Community Corrections staff managed his compliance with these conditions closely,’ Commissioner Mason said.
‘He was in frequent contact with staff, and was required to report in to his Probation Officer twice every 10 days. He had last reported in yesterday.’
Investigators are working to determine the motive and cause of the shooting and how the alleged shooter had acquired a gun without a licence (pictured, police at the scene)
