Flat Bush home shot up in drive-by shooting. Video / NZ Herald
A home in South Auckland was shot up last night in a drive-by shooting – with a volley of gunshots being fired through windows in the two-storey house.
Neighbours reported that the house on Timmer Rd, Flat Bush, was targeted around 10pm.
It is the latest in a spate ofrecent shootings targeting homes in the Auckland region.
But at yet, police are yet to confirm if it is linked to previous shootings, which have been related to rising gang tensions.
At least 23 drive-by shootings occurred in just a two-week period up to early June.
Then Police Minister Poto Williams revealed the concerning number during questioning in Parliament Tuesday, saying the shootings were linked to two unnamed gangs.
The Herald had previously reported they were believed to be the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen, who were previously allies but were now in conflict with each other.
The series of drive-by shootings began on the weekend of March 21 with three in Red Hill, Mangere and Flat Bush.
The Red Hill property on Brooke Rd was riddled with bullets shot from a passing car, police reported at the time, though no one was injured. One officer told a resident that they had found 44 bullet casings on the street.
Gunshot pellets peppered this large window and also the exterior wall of the house. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Williams told Parliament that police had launched a "major disruption and suppression" operation in response to the gang tensions.
Up to early June, that operation had led to 22 search warrants supported by armed police, 22 arrests, 37 charges, 10 guns and 300 rounds of ammunition seized.
Accused of being soft on crime by Opposition parties, Williams said gang tensions had been a feature of New Zealand communities for more than 50 years. She urged her critics against politicising the gang violence and the police response.
A new crackdown on gangs, called Operation Cobalt, was being launched.
After the rise in shootings, Manukau ward councillor and former long-serving South Auckland police officer Alf Filipaina spoke out about violence in his area.
"It's just shocking. People just don't care about using firearms.
"I'm quite adamant in putting the onus on the families who know where these firearms are."
The councillor reiterated his call for more funding for youth workers, which he said had been highly effective when introduced in the area about 15 years ago, after a spate of homicides, before funding dried up a few years later.
"I've been a broken record. It wraps the family around, it goes into the family and finds out why they're doing this, why they're going into gangs," Filipaina said.
