The street in Stokes Valley where the birthday party was held. Photo / Georgina Campbell
The street in Stokes Valley where the birthday party was held. Photo / Georgina Campbell
A man who was shot at a 50th birthday party he was hosting says he recalls a burning pain and feeling like he was “paralysed” before calling an ambulance.
The next thing Hemi Wharerau remembers is waking up in the intensive care unit at Wellington Hospital.
The 41-year-old was incourt today giving evidence about that night, which not only left him with life-threatening injuries but claimed his brother Rawiri Zane Wharerau’s life in 2023.
A man and woman, who also attended the party in Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt, but have interim name suppression, are on trial charged with murder and attempted murder. The woman also denies an additional charge of assault with a weapon.
The party was a surprise 50th for the brothers’ cousin, Robert Huaki snr – a patched Black Power member.
A woman, who attended the party as a sober driver, also gave evidence today in the High Court at Wellington, describing angry scenes in the moments before Hemi and his 39-year-old brother were shot.
The woman told the court she was sitting in her car at the bottom of the house’s driveway when the defendants’ vehicle roared up the street.
The man got out holding what she described as a hunting gun, with a long, skinny barrel, she said. His partner also got out of the car, accusing those around her of stealing $2000 from her partner’s belt bag, the court heard.
“Their eyes just looked angry,” said the woman, who has name suppression.
She said the couple ran up the driveway, before she heard shots and saw them running back down towards her.
“You need to clean the mess up at the house,” she recalls the man’s partner saying before they got back into the car and fled.
She ran up the driveway and found Rawiri Wharerau, who told her he’d been hit. She looked for bullet holes but was unable to find any because it was dark.
The woman didn’t realise he was fatally injured or that his brother Hemi had also been shot. She left the party shortly after and it was only later she learned Wharerau had died.
The scene in Stokes Valley after the fatal shooting. Photo / Georgina Campbell
The woman told the court she’d recognised the gun from an earlier confrontation that night, this time on the street outside the party.
Again, the couple had roared up the street in their car, stopping on the road in front of where she was parked.
She recalled the man being “angry, very angry”.
She said he got out of the car holding his gun and saying “I’m going to shoot any n***** around”.
A fight had ensued, between the couple and other party-goers, including the victims and Huaki snr.
The woman told the court she watched the man throw the gun to his partner, before punching Huaki snr and knocking him to the ground, unconscious.
Meanwhile, she said the partner began hitting Hemi with the gun, knocking him to the ground.
The woman said the partner continued attacking Hemi.
“I’m not 100% sure what made her stop. Hemi was pretty badly bleeding from his forehead, there was a lot of blood,” she said.
‘We don’t have much cousins that reach 50′
Earlier, in the day Hemi Wharerau gave evidence, which included the playing of his police interview that was recorded about a month after the shooting.
He explained the party at their house was a big deal because, “we don’t have much cousins that reach 50″.
Party invites were by word of mouth. Salads were prepared, food was cooked on the barbecue and a haka was performed when Huaki snr arrived at the house in the early evening.
At some point in the evening, the children were taken home and the party ramped up. A couple of patched Mangu Kaha members turned up, as Rawiri Wharerau was also a patched member. But Hemi said they didn’t bring tension, “it was good, it was happy”.
As the music blared, people talked and the alcohol flowed. Hemi drank from bottles of cognac, vodka and cans of Smirnoff Black. He wasn’t falling asleep but he was highly intoxicated, he said.
The court heard Hemi wasn’t certain where he was before the shooting, he couldn’t recall an earlier fight where he was knocked to the ground that left him with a bloodied face – until cellphone footage was played and he recognised himself lying on the road because of his blue sweatshirt.
All he recalled was hearing the man’s voice and then feeling pain. Burning pain and being unable to move “like you‘re paralysed”. Realising he’d been shot he called for an ambulance.
The next thing he remembered was waking up in hospital.
But under cross-examination, Rob Stevens, who is defending the man on trial, suggested there were tensions at the party that night.
Hemi agreed his brother had been a patched member of Mangu Kaha for about a year, although he wasn’t a gang member himself.
Their cousin Tony Huaki, who was also at the party, was the gang’s sergeant-at-arms.
That meant he was also responsible for the tikanga, or rules of the gang, and if these weren’t followed it was his job to discipline them, Stevens said.
But Hemi denied there’d been an incident earlier at the party involving a vest and a breach of tikanga. He didn’t recall Huata giving anyone a hiding that night.
He also rejected Stevens’ suggestions that his brother was responsible for the gang’s weapons, or that these were kept at his house.
The woman’s lawyer Letizea Ord referred to a video taken by a neighbour of the fight on the street. He agreed it showed him fighting with the woman.
There was a lighter moment at the end of Hemi’s evidence. Told he was free to go by Justice Dale La Hood, he replied, “Oh, choice”.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
