In an update this afternoon, police said officers were called to the address after reports of a person armed with a handgun at the property.<\/p>\n
A resident, who did not want to be named, told 1News she and her family witnessed the event. She said a car pulled up and a person got out before a heated argument began outside the house, followed by one gunshot and then several more. <\/p>\n
The person returned to the car and drove away from the cul-de-sac, before she heard more gunshots at the other end of the road.<\/p>\n
The offender fled the scene before officers arrived, police said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va\u2019aelua said police were speaking with a 30-year-old man in custody for an unrelated offence. <\/p>\n
“We are working to determine whether this man is involved,” he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat determination relies on the outcome of our enquiries, which we\u2019re prioritising with urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are maintaining an open mind, hence why no charges have been laid at this stage.”<\/p>\n
Armed police guarded the scene overnight, and residents can expect to see an increased police presence while investigations take place, he said. <\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/police-at-the-scene-of-a-double-fatal-incident-on-gambare-pl-F4FGX7DL7VHEJHIVTGXNTCON7I.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Police at the scene of a double fatal incident on Gambare Pl. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillor Daniel Newman could not comment on the police investigation when speaking to Breakfast, but said the community was “resilient”. <\/p>\n
“If someone’s at large, we want whoever’s responsible to be apprehended in police custody, and I want people to have peace in their lives,” he said. <\/p>\n
“What I can say is that our schools and families affected responded very well yesterday, and we’ll need to do the same today because today is another day.”<\/p>\n
Residents could expect to see an increased police presence as the investigation continued. <\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/police-at-the-scene-of-a-double-fatal-incident-on-gambare-pl-5L46HDUQ4ZDDLPKSU2WS4ZMFD4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Police at the scene of a double fatal incident on Gambare Pl. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Newman urged the community to stay “vigilant and to be resilient”. <\/p>\n
“We live in a great community. I live in Wattle Downs. I love living here. I love my neighbours.<\/p>\n
“I like to think that this incident will not define us.” <\/p>\n
Va\u2019aelua said yesterday the incident appeared to be “isolated”. <\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/police-at-the-scene-of-the-two-deaths-in-wattle-downs-on-thu-LQZPLBLT3VACPDJ7TN7GRMDFIM.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Police at the scene of the two deaths in Wattle Downs (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Post-mortem examinations of the two victims were held today. <\/p>\n
Va\u2019aelua urged anyone who may have seen anything to contact police. <\/p>\n
“We know this will be an unsettling time for those in our community, that such a violent incident has taken place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to reassure people we are working hard to hold people to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the investigation into an Auckland double homicide, and why Donald Trump\u2019s trying to rename a lake. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man is in custody and speaking with police after two people were found dead, having been shot,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-582692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-auckland","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}