Eight months after the event, police have released CCTV
footage of a gang-related shooting on the forecourt of a
northern Hawke's Bay service station.
They are hoping the footage, and photos, will help identify
the offender in the shooting, after the gangs -- the Mongrel
Mob and Black Power -- closed ranks and are not talking.
A 49-year-old Mongrel Mob member was shot through the window
of his white double cab ute at the Mobil service station on
October 29.
Several shots were fired through the closed driver's window
of the car, leaving the man with shotgun pellet wounds to his
arm and body and internal injuries. He was hospitalised but
has now recovered.
The shooting, on a busy Friday evening in the main street,
came three days after another gang-related shooting in the
town, where a Black Power associate was shot outside the
Mongrel Mob headquarters.
The service station shooting was clearly a retaliatory
attack, said Detective Sergeant Stephen Smith of Gisborne CIB
today.
He said no arrests had been made for either incident and the
investigation had been hampered by a lack of co-operation as
gangs were involved.
"We have spoken to dozens of people about the attack, but we
are no closer to finding the person who pulled the trigger on
the victim. The gang issue has made things difficult for us,
and we are appealing to the wider community to help us find
who is responsible for this."
Footage from the service station's CCTV camera shows the
victim getting into his car and a man with a sawn-off shotgun
suddenly appearing at his car window.
Shots are fired into the car and the gunman then runs off to
a waiting vehicle.
The victim's wife was in the passenger seat at the time but
was unhurt.
Two days later police found the getaway car -- a black Honda
Civic -- burned out in a rural area south of Wairoa. It has
been stolen in Napier.
The gunman was wearing a cap, long shorts, socks and shoes
and had a blue bandanna pulled up over his mouth and nose.
His long-sleeved top had a distinctive white design on the
front.
Mr Smith said it was important that police were given as much
information as possible about the shooting and other
gang-related incidents in Wairoa.
Police said they had charged several people in relation to a
number of gang-related violent incidents in the town over the
last 12 months.
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