Pukekohe firearms incident was gang-related, councillor says

Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi

An incident in Pukekohe on Sunday which left four people in hospital with gunshot wounds happened in a quiet part of town where a gang was known to operate, a local councillor says.

Dozens of police were called to the area around Birdwood Road East in the southern Auckland town on Sunday.

Four people were shot and taken to hospital, with minor to moderate injuries.

Franklin ward councillor and a former police officer in Pukekohe, Andy Baker, said it was a gang-related incident.

There was a gang with an active history in Pukekohe, Baker told Morning Report.

“There’s been over the years sort of a constant flow of gang activity which is really unfortunate.”

It was usually a quiet part of town, he said.

“I believe there’d been a party going on but there’s parties in … that part of Pukekohe quite often.

“People in that part of town were working really hard to make that part of Pukekohe a better place to live – over a long period of time.”

There would always be flare-ups like this one, he said.

It was a very frightening situation for people who lived in the area, he said.

“Police had a great presence there yesterday doing a lot of work with some of the leaders of the gang and other community leaders in the area so hopefully there was some sort of feeling of safety overnight and there’s going to be a lot of work done today with the community policing team, who are awesome at getting in there and talking to various people.”

It was lucky nobody was killed or seriously injured, he said.

“When firearms start getting discharged in residential areas, there’s some real risk to people innocently going about their lives, so pretty scary for them.”