Shock, devastation as carnage unfolded at a Countdown supermarket

Staff and shoppers scrambled for safety from a stabbing frenzy in central Dunedin’s Countdown supermarket. Some were caught in the melee and some risked their lives to protect others. HAMISH McNEILLY and MARTIN VAN BEYNEN report.

By 2.30pm on May 10, a warm sunny Monday in Dunedin, the Countdown supermarket at 309 Cumberland St had already been open for eight hours.

It had been a busy weekend – the country had celebrated Mother’s Day – and some Countdown staff were assigned to replenishing shelves and food displays for the Monday clientele.

A regular start of the week for the supermarket but it would not end that way.

The Countdown is a busy friendly place on a prime spot in the centre of Dunedin, catering for a diverse customer base including city workers, students and university staff.

The store occupies land between Cumberland St, a one-way road going north, and Great King St, which also connects with State Highway 1. A small circle on the map around the supermarket takes in the Dunedin Central Police Station and the former Cadbury chocolate factory.

About 2.25pm, a long-haired, bearded and scruffy man of stocky build entered the shop through the front doors. Straight ahead was the fruit and vegetable section and to his left were the checkout counters and an in-store pharmacy. The pharmacy was close to an aisle stocking health and beauty products.

Staff and shoppers had to scramble from the store when the stabbing occurred.

Five minutes later, the unkempt man, aged 42, had moved towards the aisle near the pharmacy. He was wearing a black T-shirt, the front of which was emblazoned with the words “Sons of Anarchy” (a television series about a motorcycle gang) in white lettering.

The T-shirt also had a skull graphic and stretched over the top of his loose fitting, light coloured trousers under which he wore another pair of trousers. He wore black sneakers. A witness would recall seeing the bearded man, thought to be homeless, waving his arms in George St not far from the supermarket earlier in the day.

The man was carrying a bag. If he was acting strangely, staff would not necessarily have been worried. He was one of their more colourful regulars, and they even had a nickname for him.

His first victim, a Countdown worker and mother of four, was stacking shelves near the pharmacy when he approached her.

Superintendent Paul Basham speaks to media outside the Dunedin Central Police Station on the day of the stabbing.

A witness, who asked not be named, said he appeared to have attacked the woman without warning or words being exchanged.

Another bystander, Jenny McDowell, a 39-year-old Otago Polytechnic student who does most of her shopping online, was buying some travel wipes a few metres away.

Alerted by screams and shouts, she looked over to the pharmacy to see a man stabbing the Countdown staffer with a small knife. The woman had her hands over her head trying to protect herself.

“I looked up, a bit confused about what was happening. I thought there was an argument. I didn't click it was something else. I kind of just stood there for a second ... you're thinking, ‘is this happening?’”

At first the attacker was on his own with his first victim, McDowell said.

“Blood was all over the place.”

One of the first to intervene was the store's long serving grocery manager, well-liked by staff and customers, who was stabbed twice in the stomach and twice in the back as he tried to protect his colleague.

Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins spoke for all New Zealand when he said it could have happened to anyone.

The assailant was by this time standing with two knives in his hands.

Stuff understands another Countdown employee approached and grabbed a chair from outside the pharmacy when she saw the knives. She threw the chair at him as he came towards her.

At this point, a couple, a Corrections officer of large build and his wife, tried to help the woman. The attacker stabbed the officer, inflicting a life-threatening gash in his neck and stab wounds to his back. His wife was also stabbed in the back.

She thought the offender was jammed under the chair, with someone putting his full weight on the seat.

“He was on his back and saying something like 'give it up, let me go'. He looked really angry and for someone who was not a huge guy, he seemed to be very strong.”

The man was heard to say “witches, witches”, a phrase he repeated as he was escorted on foot to the Dunedin Central Police Station a few hundred metres away, next to the supermarket’s car park.

McDowell helped a Countdown employee hold his top against the Corrections officer’s neck wound to stop the blood.

“He (the stabbed man) was saying, ‘my wife, my wife. Is she OK’.”

Police arrived within minutes and started helping with first aid. Several were members of the armed offenders squad who receive a higher level of first aid training.

Emergency services rushed to a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin after reports of a stabbing.

McDowell helped roll over the man with the neck wound so a police officer could check the wounds on his back. They cut off his shirt.

The wounds on his back were puncture wounds, but the wound in his neck was as long as a finger, McDowell said.

“It was significant cut for a small knife. The pool of blood on the floor was getting bigger, and we had to move his phone. It all happened so fast, but it seemed like long time for the ambulance to get there. I was really worried the guy was going to bleed out.”

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Staff and customers who had scrambled in the commotion congregated outside the store in shocked huddles. They watched as the handcuffed offender was led out by two officers and the injured were brought out on stretchers.

By now an off-duty police officer who had been doing some shopping was on the scene, Stuff understands. The officer, after hitting the assailant with a bottle and throwing more articles at him, picked up the chair to keep him at bay. He then used it to hit the offender and pin him down.

As the attacker fell back, the Countdown employee who threw the chair and another police officer jumped on him and restrained him on the floor.

McDowell saw members of the public “jumping in there”.

“There was a big commotion and I couldn't see that well, but I saw him stabbing anyone that was in the vicinity. There was a lot of blood.”

Someone called out the name of the long-serving grocery manager as he lay on the ambulance trolley. He tried to wave with his right hand, but was clearly struggling to move.

The Corrections officer, now bare chested, was the first to be taken to one of four waiting ambulances.

By 3.45pm, Countdown headquarters, which had been inundated with calls, released a statement from managing director Spencer Spoon.

“We are shocked and devastated,” he said.

“We are deeply upset that customers who tried to help our team members were also injured.

“We have been concerned about the escalating violence towards our team, and this is something we have continued to talk and raise as an issue over the last year.”

Ahead of his news conference, Southern district commander Superintendent Paul Basham released a statement confirming police had found four people with serious stab-related injuries.

“We also located a man, who had been detained by members of the public, that we believe is allegedly responsible for this incident,” he said.

“This was a fast-moving and extremely traumatic event for every person in that supermarket – the victims who were injured, those present who tried to intervene and those who had to flee to a place of safety.

“On the face of what we currently know, we believe this was a random attack.”

Searchers would find McDowell's phone and car keys left behind in the store.

At a news briefing about 5pm, Basham said the offender was receiving medical attention in Dunedin Hospital. He was under police guard and had yet to be formally spoken to or charged.

“Those that intervened, some of whom became injured themselves, I think have acted selflessly and with great courage to prevent this man from hurting anybody else,” he said.

Speaking at a post-Cabinet meeting press conference on Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said nothing suggested the incident was a domestic terror attack.

“Such an attack is hugely concerning, and I do want to acknowledge the early reports of courageous acts by bystanders who have taken action in order to protect those around them. Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by this attack,” she said.

Shoppers had to run from the supermarket as the incident developed.

Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins spoke for most of New Zealand when he said the incident was hard to comprehend.

“Nobody should feel like they should be hurt in their place of work or doing everyday errands,” he told reporters.

“The most chilling thing about this is it could have been any of us.”

The attacker appeared in court the next day to face four charges of attempted murder. He stood in the dock looking down with a white plaster on his right forearm. The judge suppressed his name and remanded him in custody to appear in the High Court on June 1.

Basham said they were “improving” but “have a long road ahead”.

Police had handed the supermarket back to Countdown by Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Kiri Hannifin the store had been blessed by a local kaumatua and the focus was now on “helping make sure our team’s return to the store is as peaceful and as healing as it can be”.

“We’re working on getting the store back in order, and we’ll reopen for our local customers when we feel we’re ready to do so.”

Countdown has not said when the store will reopen for business. The company did not answer an email from Stuff containing a list of questions.

No doubt the supermarket will soon get back to normal. The store will be cleaned and all signs of the attack will be removed. The mental stain will take a lot longer to fade.