Australian Kills 5 Neighbors, Walks to Store, Then Surrenders

SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian man, awakened today by a neighbor’s insulting taunt, killed five people with shotgun blasts to the head and walked to a grocery store to buy cigarettes and a cold drink before surrendering to police.

Paul Evers, 35, left a scene described by police as horrendous after a breakfast time rampage through a three-story apartment building in Sydney’s rundown Surry Hills district.

Police prosecutor Brett Longville said Evers was awakened by a male neighbor shouting “dole bludger” (unemployed idler) outside his room, the latest in a series of brushes between Evers and other residents of the building.

Evers got dressed, donned a ski mask and confronted the neighbor with a shotgun. After killing him, Evers returned to his own apartment where he shot a 24-year-old female roommate three times. Reloading, Evers strolled through the building, shooting an 80-year-old man trying to escape down a communal staircase, police said.

He then kicked down the door of an apartment on the top floor and shot the couple inside, Longville said. Dropping the weapon in his own apartment, Evers walked to the nearby grocery.

As police wearing flak jackets and carrying shotguns closed in, Evers approached a police car and surrendered.