Worker keeps head to clear building as gunman visits

Police check down a drain for the pistol after the gang member was taken into custody. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A mental health worker has been praised for leading her colleagues to safety when a gunman entered their building.

The 34-year-old Tokoroa gang member was seen wandering through school grounds with a pistol on Monday morning, sending Tokoroa High and Tokoroa Intermediate schools into "lockdown" mode.

After waving the weapon he left the school grounds and walked across Maraetai Rd into a mental health unit at Tokoroa Hospital.

The man arrived at the unit for a court-imposed forensic intelligence test and hospital staff inside were unaware of the drama that was folding outside.

Police converged on the hospital grounds and cordoned the area off.

Detective Sergeant Kevan Verry phoned staff member Maureen Henry, the mental health rural team co-ordinator.

Waikato District Health Board spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said Ms Henry acted calmly and professionally when told by police that the man inside her building was suspected of carrying a gun.

She offered to approach the man but police advised her instead to evacuate the building as quietly as possible.

Ms Henry slowly ushered her 11 staff from the building in groups of three.

By the time nearly everyone was out of the building, the man had entered an appointment room with a doctor and nurse.

But Ms Henry phoned the room and told the staff to leave. She then locked a back door and bathroom and left the building.

"It's amazing what she did," Ms Gill said.

"The police have praised her and we are also enormously proud of what she did.

"She's being incredibly modest about it, saying she's just part of a team where safety is the number one priority and that she only did what came naturally."

The evacuation was so efficient that it was some time before the man realised he was alone inside the building.

Once the armed offenders squad arrived from Rotorua and spoke to the man over a loudspeaker he gave himself up quietly.

He admitting having had an air pistol and was arrested and charged with illegal possession of a firearm.