A witness to the Grey Lynn shooting on Monday night says he and his family hid in their closet while the gunman - a neighbour - shot at his own home.
The 32-year-old gunman was shot and critically injured by police following the scary incident on Wallingford St in Grey Lynn, Auckland.
Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Karyn Malthus said police were called just after 5pm after being notified a man "in an agitated state" was standing on the street with a firearm.
She said before police arrived, the man had fired "several shots" from the street at his own home.
"Officers went towards the man and called upon him to put down his firearm. He has however raised it towards the police staff and been shot once."
The man was shot in the abdomen, received immediate medical attention and had been transported to hospital, she said.
Graeme Gunthorp, who is a Waitematā Local Board member and witnessed the shooting, told AM once he knew it was gunshots he grabbed his kids and hid in a closet before calling the police.
"So we're preparing dinner for the kids just before 5:30pm and we heard some loud sounds from the front. I walked into the front yard to see what was happening," he told AM co-host Ryan Bridge.
"I was carrying the one-year-old at the time, which wasn't my best move, and there is a high fence in the way, so I couldn't see anything, but I could hear lots of shouting, very abusive along the nature of 'come out here' and then heard further gunshots.
"So I realised what they were and ran into the house, slammed the door as fast as I could, bundled the kids down into the broom closet and quickly got on the phone to the police."
Gunthorp said he was worried about his fellow neighbours as the gunman has a history of aggression.
"His front door is ten metres from mine and it sounded like he was in his front yard. I was also a bit worried that he might be focussing his attention on the neighbour on the other side," he told AM.
"This guy had some history of aggression towards people in the neighbourhood, so I was pretty worried about others in the community. I made a number of phone calls to neighbours to make sure everyone was okay, but fortunately no other bystanders, no bystanders were involved."
Gunthorp described the moment he believed the police shot the gunman.
"The Eagle helicopter arrived really quickly and then the emergency services switchboard was still talking me through what was happening," he told AM.
"They told me they were assembling a team and they obviously don't rush in as fast as they can willy-nilly when there's an armed offender. So they were just making sure they had all the right people and resources in place.
"Then they warned me, just make sure you're down out of the way for a few more gunshots. I'm assuming one of those was when the police took down the assailant."
Watch the full interview with Graeme Gunthorp above.
