Until late this afternoon, police were still searching for John Henry Tully, the man suspected of fatally shooting two people at the Work and Income office in Ashburton this morning. It is now understood that he has been apprehended.
At 10am this morning, a man wearing a balaclava went in to the Ashburton Work and Income office and opened fire with a shot gun, killing two women and leaving one in a serious condition at Christchurch Hospital, leaving police to pursue the suspected shooter, John Henry Tully, aged 48.
Te Kāea understands that both of the women who were killed in the shooting today were Work and Income staff.
According to the local paper in Ashburton, Tully was a known homeless man who slept in his car on the banks of the Ashburton River, not far from town. In recent weeks he had sold his car for money.
Work and Income offices around the South Island closed after the shooting as a security precaution, and now staff are left to mourn the loss of their two colleagues.