A 47-year-old police officer has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman in Invercargill on Tuesday night.
The officer named as Constable Ben Mclean has also been charged with attempted murder in relation to a second victim at the scene.
The charges were laid at a court hearing which took place at Southland Hospital in Invercargill yesterday afternoon.
Superintendent Paul Basham, Southern District Commander says Constable Ben Mclean was off-duty at the time of the incident.
Police were called to an address on Otepuni Avenue, Newfield where a woman was found dead at the address, and a man was found wounded with gunshot wounds.
He is in a stable condition in hospital.
The man charged handed himself in at the Invercargill Police station a short time after the shooting.
He is also receiving treatment for injuries sustained during the incident.
Superintendent Basham says, “We are confident we know the identity of the victim, however we are unable to release her name right now until the formal identification process has been completed, which is likely to be tomorrow.
This is obviously a huge tragedy for everyone involved.
We are dealing with three different families who have been affected and providing all necessary support to them.
We are also supporting Police staff in Invercargill who are naturally very shocked at what has occurred.”
Police say the investigation is still in its early stages and involves around 30 staff who are both local and from out of district.
Bashan says, “I fully understand the shock this tragedy has caused, both within police and the wider community in Southland.
This is a one-off event and we cannot recall a similar tragedy like this in recent times to allegedly involve a serving police officer.
However, we are committed to being professional and diligent in our focus is to understand exactly what has happened.
I urge anyone with information which could help us to contact police.”