A Christchurch man fatally injured in a drive-by shooting was a Black Power member implicated in gang warfare in 1997.
Max Andrew Shannon, aged 26, was shot in the head and chest in suburban Woolston on Tuesday night. He died in Christchurch Hospital at 10.15 am yesterday.
Detective Senior Sergeant John Ell said Mr Shannon had just finished rugby league practice at Woolston Park and was sitting in a parked car when he was shot several times. Witnesses said the shots came from a light-coloured car travelling slowly along Silvester St.
Police did not yet know whether the shooting was linked to a stolen blue Toyota Corona, which was set alight at a nearby intersection minutes later.
Officers searched several gang premises on Tuesday night and yesterday morning.
"The people involved with the victim are definitely involved in some local gangs and we would have to say at this time that we believe it is gang-related," said Detective Senior Sergeant Ell.
Mr Shannon was among 10 Black Power members and associates charged after a gang clash with Highway 61 in 1997.
He was charged with possession of 25 shotgun cartridges, a sawnoff shotgun and a Lithgow .303 rifle.
Police later withdrew the firearms charges because they were unable to call evidence from witnesses who refused to be identified.
The last gang-related murder in Christchurch was 14 months ago, when a man was stabbed to death at a Woolston party.
Detective Senior Sergeant Ell said it was disturbing that gang rivalries had turned lethal.
"From time to time there are conflicts that arise between different gangs. Some are minor and some turn into more major incidents. We are certainly looking at why this occurred."
Between 35 and 40 officers were working on the case, he said.
The car in which Mr Shannon was fatally injured remained parked yesterday where he was shot.
Its bullet-pocked driver's door was hanging open and the windows were shattered.
Inquiries indicated that the car was registered to a different man living at a suburban Dallington address.
Silvester St residents, who did not want to be named for fear of gang retaliation, said they had heard four shots.
"At about quarter to eight I heard this almighty bang. It was like a bomb and I thought: 'What the hell is that?' I thought somebody had put a bomb under a car," said one elderly resident.
Three more shots were then fired in rapid succession.
Another resident said she was standing at the back of her house when the first shot was fired, and she thought it was a car accident.
She ran to the lounge at the front of the house and saw that her husband had pulled her daughter down and they were lying on the floor.
Her husband looked out the window to see a car reversing back towards Mr Shannon's vehicle. More shots were fired and then the car sped away.
- NZPA
Drive-by shooting victim was gang member
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