This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

At least four men are dead and a woman is injured after a man believed to be an associate of an outlaw motorcycle gang newly released from prison allegedly went on a shooting rampage in Darwin’s city centre.

On Tuesday night Northern Territory police arrested the suspected shooter on a Darwin city street. He remains under police guard in a Darwin hospital, with police expected to lay charges on Wednesday.

On Wednesday the NT police commissioner Reece Kershaw said the man, who was released from jail on parole in January and was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of the shooting and was “well known to us”.

The first reports of a man firing shots came at the Palms Motel just outside the Darwin city centre about 5.50pm. A man was killed at the motel before three other deaths occurred at the nearby Buff Club, Gardens Hill Crescent and an industrial site at Jolly Street in the suburb of Woolner.

Witness Leah Potter told the Today Show she had followed a police officer to the scene of the shooting at the motel.

“We followed him, and the scene that we came across, I could not even believe that this could happen in Darwin,” she said.

“A man had come through the Palms Motel and shot every window.”

She said the man was looking for someone, and after shooting up the motel he allegedly found his target and shot him dead.

Potter said the man was well known. “He’s a local Darwin lad that all of us know. So it’s quite shocking,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police cordon off Palms Motel in Darwin. Photograph: Michael Franchi/AAP

Kershaw confirmed that the suspect had been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time. A shotgun was used but its exact type is not yet known.

“We’re still trying to establish the intent and the motivation behind this,” Kershaw told reporters. He said the shooting was not terrorism-related. Asked if the man was a member of the Rebels motorcycle gang, Kershaw said he may have associated with them.

Kershaw said the man may have been trying to hand himself in to police and urged members of the public who had information or video footage to contact the force.

Witnesses told the ABC that the man had walked into the Palms Motel and opened fire with a pump-action shotgun just before 6pm on Tuesday.

A group of about a dozen men who were friends and relatives of a man who died at the motel gathered outside after the shooting, many in tears.

Matthew James was standing in a car park nears the Palms when it all began. “It was just surreal,” he told Nine’s Today program on Wednesday. “All of a sudden there were these gunshots.

“Moments later someone came running towards me carrying this woman who was covered in blood and just basically put her at my feet and she was screaming that she had been shot.

“The guy that actually carried her up was pretty frantic at the time, saying he had opened the door and there was a gunman there with a shotgun and he proceeded to fire upon anybody inside the building.”

James said the woman was hysterical. “She was caught up in it, she said, ‘I’ve been shot, I don’t know why, I don’t have anything to do with anything.’

The woman told James the shooter had been going from room to room, firing his gun and shouting the name of a man – Alex.

“It just seems so insane,” James said.

Chris Dalgleish, who was having a beer on the balcony of the Frontier Hotel pub across the road from the Palms, said people had raced inside when they realised someone was shooting.

“Everyone started jumping inside, then locking doors and windows and went to the back corner,” he told Australian Associated Press.

John Rose told the ABC he had seen a gunman walk into the motel with “a sawn-off shotgun”. “He shot up all the rooms and he went to every room looking for somebody and he shot them all up. Then we saw him rush out, jump into his Toyota pick-up, and rush off.”

He said the gunman had appeared calm. “Once he left we went in and found one gentleman, he’s over there, we pulled him out,” Rose said.

Leah Potter said the gunman had been armed with a pump-action shotgun and had shot a woman through her hotel room door.

“I was in the car park [of a neighbouring hotel] when I heard what I thought were fireworks going off, really loud cracking, banging fireworks,” she told the ABC. “This lady turned up and started screaming, and we didn’t realise there was another person in there … apparently he’s dead, he’s been shot.”

The NT chief minister, Michael Gunner, said thoughts were with the families and friends of the victims. “This is not the Darwin we know,” he told reporters.

A police duty superintendent, Lee Morgan, told the Guardian shortly after the shooting there were “four deceased and a number of other people who have been shot”.

Stephanie Zillman (@Steph_Zillman) Reports an active shooter in Darwin CBD with up to 20 shots fired and people injured ... confusing scenes with tree on fire and roads blocked. pic.twitter.com/4WY2hVE2b3

Morgan said police had first received calls about shots being fired at 5.50pm local time.

The alleged gunman was finally arrested by NT police without incident at 6.45pm at the busy Stuart Highway and McMinn Street intersection. Officers expect to lay charges against him on Wednesday.

Stephanie Zillman (@Steph_Zillman) Dramatic arrest if possible shooter in Darwin CBD pic.twitter.com/0fis1UQHW9

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has been in touch with the Northern Territory chief minister.

“This is a terrible act of violence,” he told reporters in London. “I just want to extend my deep condolences and sympathies to all the people in the territory, particularly in Darwin. This is a very tight community and I know they will be rocked by these events.”

A Royal Darwin hospital spokeswoman, Sally Edwards, said the emergency department was treating a woman with leg wounds who was in a stable condition.