There is much the police are unable to say so soon after the shootings at Waitārere Beach that have left a woman and two young men fighting for their lives.
By Kim Baker Wilson of RNZ
They cannot yet say if it is a family harm incident, as the local mayor said it was.
Speaking to RNZ on Wednesday night, police also said it was too soon to say how those involved are related, what type of gun was used, or why police were called to the address just hours earlier.
But among the things they are able say is that the scene that met emergency services was "hideous".
"It's not a good thing to describe," Manawatū area commander Inspector Ross Grantham said.
"They immediately went into first aid mode and through their work, identified one person as deceased and continued their first aid services to the other three," he said.
"So our people did the best they could and got those three survivors out of there as quickly as we could with the services of our local volunteer fire service and ambulance."
A 111 call was made at about 12.40am on Wednesday and police were there within eight minutes.
But it was not the first call for help.
Police revealed to RNZ they had also been called to the same property hours earlier at about 7pm.
"We had been called to the address earlier in the night and we had attended and from that we took some action," Grantham said.
"And the next call, of course, we attended and found what we found."
Grantham said he could not give further detail about what action was taken, or why police were called the first time.
"We really need to get down to the true detail of what that was all about but what I can say, is that the call was made by the older female at the address," he said.
"And then unfortunately, the next call we got, it was a different state of affairs in the address."
The dead man has been named by a relative as Benjamin Timmins.
His sister described the 60-year-old as her rock, her friend, her protector "and above all, my brother".
"I will miss him," she said.
She said it was with the "heaviest of broken hearts" that she was sharing that he was dead.
"The last of the good old boys," she wrote.
"Loved friend, father, and brother. Trickster, funny fella, all round solid gold."
Police were still working to properly identify everyone involved, Grantham said.
"Whilst we have some information that says these people live at the address, we need to confirm that everybody is there and who they truly are and then we can start talking about any sort of relationships between them."
The survivors in Wellington Hospital were at the most severe end of "critical," Grantham said.
"The really positive thing is that whilst they're in critical condition, they are still alive and I think that the quick services provided by police, the volunteer fire service and the ambulance services absolutely made that fighting chance possible for them."
A young girl who was at the scene is being cared for by extended family.
When asked if she was related to Timmins, Grantham said: "Again, it's a little bit early to say because we don't know the true identities of everybody in the scene, but I believe she is related."
"I believe the family have been extremely open to the police and supportive of us and, of course, the young girl."
On Thursday, Timmins' body will be taken to the mortuary in Palmerston North ahead of a post-mortem on Friday.
Grantham said the scene examination could extend into the weekend.
"Whilst the scene examination is underway we will continue to guard the scene and the public within the community can expect to see a more heavy police presence there than they normally would," Grantham said.
"It's like most small communities in New Zealand, everybody knows everybody or somebody knows somebody and so it will have a very wide impact on that community and the community within the Horowhenua."
Police were not seeking anyone else, and Grantham could not confirm if it was family harm.
"Family harm is a very wide spectrum and if this is indeed family harm, then it is most certainly at the top end of that spectrum," he said.
"That is terribly, terribly sad."
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