Northland gang member shot dead from about 100m away

Nicky Dodd is on trial in the Whangarei High Court for the murder of Tribesmen gang member John Harris. Photo/ John Stone

A Northland gang member was shot in the chest during a dispute over gang territory and a car, a jury has heard.

Nicky Bryan Dodd, 43, is accused of firing a shot from about 100m away which hit John Henry Harris, who was with a group of fellow Tribesmen members outside a house on Mower Rd, just north of Whangārei.

The shooting happened on October 18, 2016 and Harris was taken to the St John Ambulance station on Western Hills Dr in Whangārei in a critical condition by friends and associates.

He died from a single gun shot wound at about 6.40am.

Forensics officers survey the scene at the Whangarei St John ambulance station on Western Hills Dr. Photo/ File

Dodd has denied killing Harris, 37, from Rangiahua in Okaihau and a jury trial is hearing evidence in the High Court at Whangārei.

The trial before Justice Ailsa Duffy began yesterday and scheduled to last four weeks.

In her opening address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Nicole Dore said tension between the Whangārei and Far North chapter of the Tribesmen gang began in 2016.

A patched member who was transferred to the Far North chapter continued to live in Whangārei and the Tribesmen members in Whangārei thought he owed them further debt.

A red Holden Commodore was taken from the patched member's house on Mower Rd on October 15, 2016 and the car was later seen parked outside Nicky Dodd's brother Adam Dodd's house in Kensington.

While retrieving the car, a group of Tribesmen from the Far North fired two shots but no one was hurt.

Nicky then drove to the Mower Rd house just before 6am on October 18, 2016.

Dore said Nicky got out of the car, parked at the corner of State Highway One and Mower Rd and fired a shot from waist height from about 100m away.

Harris dropped to the ground and later died.

The defence case is Nicky Dodd did let off a shot but did not aim at anyone.

Nicky Dodd genuinely had no idea the shot could travel that far, his lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade told the jury.