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- WORLD, Page 51World NotesNEW ZEALANDFiring at Sundown
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- Dusk was settling over the seaside South Island village of
- Aramoana (pop. 52) last week when a volley of shots ruptured
- the evening calm. Almost simultaneously, an orange glow lit the
- darkening sky as fire licked at the house of Garry Holden, 38,
- a naturopath who lived with his two daughters at the far end
- of the village. Many of the locals interrupted their dinners
- to investigate.
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- At the blazing Holden home they ran into a hail of gunfire
- that cut down the first five arrivals. The gunman was David
- Gray, 33, an unemployed farmhand and next-door neighbor of the
- Holdens. Earlier he had picked an argument with Holden,
- possibly over the latter's mistreatment of his dog and rabbits.
- Gray then killed Holden and his elder daughter, 11, and torched
- the house. As terrified villagers tried to flee, Gray fired at
- them with five high-powered rifles kept in his kitchen, then
- began to stalk neighbors' homes. Among those killed was the
- first policeman to arrive at the scene.
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- After a 23-hour siege, tear gas finally flushed Gray from
- a house in which he had holed up. He emerged shooting and was
- killed by police gunfire. The toll: 14 dead, more than a
- quarter of Aramoana's population, and three injured.
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