The gunman, John Christopher Higgins, was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds of insanity.

[1][3] He had conflict with the Waikino School after a truancy officer visited him and fined him for keeping his children home and locking them in the house to watch over the property.

[1][2] After a series of personal problems - his chickens died, bees were stolen from his hives, and other people's cattle grazed on his land after his fences were cut - he blamed his neighbours.

[2] Two days before the shooting, he found his horse dead, and claimed someone had killed it, again blaming his neighbors.

[1][2] On 19 October 1923, at 10 a.m.,[3] Higgins arrived at the school with a .32 calibre Colt automatic revolver,[2][4] saying he had "come for revenge" and rambling about being persecuted.

[3] The head of the school, Robert Theodore Reid, was wounded in the shooting and resigned, subsequently being involved in correspondence education.

[7] Reid was paralyzed in the right shoulder by his injuries and never taught again, later retiring to Auckland and dying at age 92.

[2] Higgins' wife and their two children returned to Canada shortly after his sentence was commuted,[8][9] with money donated by the public.

Details of Higgins' past behavior were shared during the trial: he built trapdoors on his property so he could escape if approached, watched his neighbors through telescopes and holes he had cut in his walls, and often locked his son in the house or kept him in the stable with the horse overnight to keep watch.

[13] He was noted to show no emotion his final day of court, and had no comment after the jury gave its verdict.

[1] The court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment less than a month later, after it was decided that he suffered from "chronic delusional insanity".