rivettingKateTaylor

They must be getting closer. The Iroquois has been going again for about half an hour now.

A friend, Wade, just phoned me to say he saw the alleged gunman pulled over by the police in Dannevirke, was then passed by him north of the town and then came across his abandoned car which had been in a crash with a car and trailer on the northern side of the Butcher’s Creek gully between Norsewood and Takapau.

Of course he had no idea at the time of the nature of the man’s state of mind.

Our gunman has now been on the run for almost 24 hours.

Media calls have lessened to me as the reporters do their own detective work and get better people to quote! There wasn’t really any stick for not passing on the names and numbers of locals, especially once we found out whose place the shooting happened on and wouldn’t tell them. They had to do their own detective work! And they did. It didn’t take long before a couple of them were phoning me for their numbers and I told them if they had the name they had a phone book!

I did text two friends to ask if I could pass on their details – one said yes and one said no.

One was the owner of the farm next door to the shooting, whose workers were approached first by the gunman but left alone. The next ones weren’t so lucky.

According to one of the reporters at the cordon, the shooting victim is undergoing surgery in HB Hospital. I understood the person was okay, so not sure of the validity of that report.

It is still raining – perhaps hypothermia is causing problems for the heat detection equipment being used by the police?!