Coromandel shooting: 'Tight-knit' community will be reeling after ...

Police on The 309 Road, Coromandel, after a fatal shooting on Friday. Photo: RNZ / Chris Bruce

Locals in the Coromandel township are shocked and saddened by a fatal shooting that has "rocked" the community.

Police were called to The 309 Road just after 2pm Friday, where two people were found with gunshot wounds. One later died and another was airlifted to Auckland City Hospital.

A man has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder. Police were not seeking anyone else.

A man who previously lived on the road for 15 years said it had rocked the tight-knit community.

"The people that I lived with up there, were really close and this is going back 30 or 40 years when I first met them. It was a shock, an absolute shock to hear it.

"I didn't know anything about it. I was downtown shopping yesterday and was just getting into my car and a friend was having a cup of coffee and he called me over."

At the bustling Saturday farmers' market, one woman said she thought everyone was quite distressed.

"It's very unusual for that sort of thing to happen here. It's a really peaceful community, a lot of eccentrics but a really peaceful place.

"I think it's rocked us, especially now, with holidaymakers coming. I think people are a bit worried that people are going to think that it's a dangerous place to be. But it truly isn't. I think everybody's feeling very sad, honestly, very sad."

'Really special part of the Coromandel'

Waiau residents would be reeling, Coromandel MP Scott Simpson said, and it was not the way they would want to start their Christmas season.

"The 309 Road is a really special part of the Coromandel," he said. "It's an unsealed metalled piece of road - it's in many respects like Coromandel [that] used to be in classic years gone by.

"It's a tight-knit community and I'm very much feeling for those people who live in and are part of that community as we come to terms with this news."

A former army medic gave CPR to one of the victims.

The man, who did not want to be named, told Checkpoint that he was serving customers at his small business when someone told him they had heard gun shots.

The man said he found an injured man near the edge of his property. He put him in the recovery position and got a compression bandage, for what looked like a gunshot wound, before starting CPR. The victim did not survive his injuries.

He said he later noticed there was a second man, who appeared to be a "young lad" in his 20s, who had a gunshot wound to the upper chest. He was later airlifted to hospital.

The man said 120 children were on-site celebrating the end of the school year.

He did not think they would have seen anything as they left through a different exit on the property.

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