The prime minister says the whole nation is mourning after this morning's shooting in the city, which left multiple people injured and three dead.
Dozens of armed police went to the area after a witness reported that a man with a gun was shooting inside a construction site on lower Queen Street at 7.23am.
The gunman, who has now been named as Matu Tangi Matua Reid, is one of those who died in the incident. St John says six people were taken to hospital, while two others were treated at the scene.
Hipkins said the whole nation was mourning - and the families and loved ones of the victims will be mourning.
"My thoughts are also with those injured this morning and that includes the two police officers who were shot at whilst they were doing their jobs. They were protecting the public, their colleagues and the other first responders who were on the scene and they are New Zealand heroes.
"We have once again seen our police showing the most resolute professionalism in the most challenging set of circumstances."
Hipkins said he met with police commissioner and senior police officials this afternoon and was confident they would be able to fully answer questions in time.
Chris Hipkins Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"Those questions include what triggered this terrible sequence of events, where the shooter got the gun from because New Zealand's gun laws prevent that person holding them legally and whether there were any flags that could have signalled earlier that this could happen."
Hipkins said he did not want to prejudge whether man should have been allowed to go to work given he was on home detention, and there would be a full review into whether there were any red flags earlier.
Before any judgement on the robustness of NZ's gun laws were made it first needed to understood how the offender got the gun, Hipkins said.
It was a standalone incident and people should feel safe to be out and about in Auckland and to attend the FIFA event this evening, he said. The shooting would be acknowledged at the opening ceremony. Hipkins would be attending, he said.
At an earlier briefing Hipkins said there was no political or ideological motivation for the shooting and therefore there was no national security risk.
The offender was armed with a pump action shotgun and moved through the building site discharging the firearm as he went, Hipkins earlier said.
The man contained himself in an elevator in the upper levels of the building, shots were fired and his body was located a short time later, Hipkins said.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the gunman believed to be responsible for the incident was a 24-year-old man who was on home detention and had a history of family violence.
Hipkins said the FIFA World Cup tournament would continue as planned as there was no wider security issue and it appeared to be the actions of one individual.
