Staff and cleaners at a Wellington school where a man was shot by police found out about the incident on social media.
A cordon near the scene of the fatal police shooting in Newlands. Photo: RNZ / Hamish Cardwell
Emergency services were called to a family harm incident at Kingsbridge Place on Tuesday around 3pm.
Police said they tried to appeal to the man but he made threats to officers and tried to barricade himself in a property with a woman.
They fired multiple shots, critically injuring the man. Police said they gave him medical attention and requested ambulance support, however the man died a short time later.
A woman at the house was found with non-life threatening injuries and was treated at the scene by ambulance staff.
Police have yet to say whether the man had a weapon.
At least one King Cobra gang member was seen yelling aggressively at the police cordon on Tuesday evening.
The grounds of Newlands Intermediate School back on to some of the properties on the street, and a public walkway off the street is used to get into the school.
"A member of my board of trustees alerted me to the fact that there had been shots fired and there were some emergency services at a street not too far from the school," principal Angela Lowe said.
"Fortunately it was after school so the grounds were pretty much clear, the students had all left."
Staff were on site doing professional development, and cleaners were working there.
"I have a great [deputy principal] who went round and just told everybody quietly it was time to go, that there had been incidents in the street, advised the cleaners that it was time to move off site as well and to get home and to be safe."
She said she would be checking with police about whether they tried to contact her, and how they could do so after school hours.
"This will be a surprise and a shock to the community. The community is very settled, there's hundreds of children who walk to school every day, it's a very connected community. I think people will be concerned and surprised that this occurred in their own area.
"We will do everything we can do to make sure today is a very calm day at our school."
A neighbour, Jeremy, said it was known that gang members lived there but they normally kept to themselves, and gangs had never been a problem in the area.
He said it was normally a quiet, family-friendly area.
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