Family mourn death of Mongrel Mob member

Mourners at the site where three Mongrel Mob members lost their lives on Saturday. Photo / Paul Taylor

One of the Mongrel Mob members killed in a crash on the way to the gang's 50th anniversary celebrations at the weekend died on his late grandfather's birthday.

Father of two TerryShane Stone, 31, died alongside two other Mongrel Mob members on Saturday after their car plunged down a bank into the Mohaka River in Hawkes Bay.

Mongrel Mob member TerryShane Stone was killed in a car accident over the weekend.

The other men were Ronald Rigby, 53, and Nathan Isaac, 29.

A fourth man survived and was discharged from hospital but has not been named. All four men were from Wairoa.

Mr Stone died on his grandfather Jerry's birthday. Jerry Stone died in February this year, aged 76. The family had also been rocked by other deaths this year.

"As a family we are hurting. As a family we have mourned four times already this year and this will be the fifth. Those who died were elders with absolutely no gang affiliations," his cousin Aperira Stone said.

A family notice posted on the Wairoalive website said Mr Stone is survived by his partner Erica and children Blayde and Kingston.

The family notice described him as a loved son, moko, nephew, brother and uncle.

The relative said he was a good man.

"Pressures of living in a small society can lead you to join a gang. He did not have a broken home nor was his mother an old lady to any [gang] member," said Ms Stone.

Mr Stone had 12 siblings.

A service for him will be held at a residential address in Wairoa this Saturday.

His brother Deejay posted a photograph on Facebook saying "rest eazy my brother Terry Dog".

It is understood other members of Mr Stone's family are Mongrel Mob members.

Many people have taken to social media to suggest the gang members who died did not deserve sympathy because of their choice of lifestyle.

Ms Stone urged "keyboard warriors" not to judge him if they did not know him.

"He was a good man," the cousin said.

"Pressures of living in a small society led him to wear a patch. Still human, though, and, no, he wasn't scum."

On Facebook a relation of Mr Rigby said: "Without my Papa we wouldn't be this one big family. Being the eldest is hard holding a whanau this big. But you did!"

Mr Rigby was a long-serving member of the Mongrel Mob and was no stranger to the courts and news headlines.

In 2012 he was one of six members jailed after an intra-gang shootout at their gang headquarters in Wairoa.

Police, including armed offender squad officers from Gisborne, were called to the gang's headquarters after a shooting linked to a leadership dispute. Two men suffered gunshot wounds in the fracas.

In 2004 Mr Rigby managed to elude police for more than three months after he allegedly stabbed a rival Black Power gang member outside the Wairoa Courthouse.