Father and son flee gangland shootout

By PATRICK GOWER and NATASHA HARRIS

Gang warfare erupted in a small Bay of Plenty town yesterday as Black Power and Mongrel Mob members shot at each other from at least five cars.

The fight between up to 20 gang members put three people in hospital with gunshot wounds, and has led to a police hunt in an area divided by gang tension in the past year.

An innocent father and son were caught up in the terror, fleeing when bullets smashed into their car.

The father and his 14-year-old son ran for their lives after being inadvertently trapped in the gunfight.

The pair fled 100m down a road in their hometown of Taneatua, 13km south of Whakatane, yesterday afternoon, to safety in the boy's grandmother's house.

The drama began when the family, relaxing at the grandmother's home, heard what they believed to be a gunshot.

The father, 42, rushed off to what he thought was an accident.

The family live on Reid Rd in the Ruatoki Valley. The road links Taneatua, where the Mongrel Mob has a base, with Ruatoki North, 9km away, where Black Power is established.

The man's wife, who did not want their names used, said that after hearing the shot her husband looked out the window and saw smoke down the road.

The first aid-trained father of five children under 16 rushed to help at what he thought was a car accident.

The mother said her son offered to help, so the father and son drove towards the scene.

They were waved down by a man who was running away from another moving vehicle.

"This guy jumped in their car and he said, 'Drive, my mate's been shot at, help me', so my husband started to drive," she said.

A man who had climbed from the other vehicle then stood in the middle of the road, firing at the family's car.

"My husband chucked our son down on the floor, backed back and went into a post," she said.

"There was another shot, and the boy who had asked for help jumped out and was running down the paddock.

"My husband saw the shooter loading his gun again about 20m away, so he jumped out of the car with his hands up and said, 'I'm no part of this'."

The man with the gun waved the father and son away. They arrived back at the house they had left minutes earlier, hysterical, screaming to call the police.

"My son's a mess," she said last night.

"He's pretty shaken up. He knows a lot about guns so he's blown away that people can disrespect them like that."

But although the experience was harrowing for her family, she was not frightened, because the gangs in the area "don't interfere with the innocent".

"The gangs aren't like that ... I don't have any fear because it was gang related - I just feel for my son and my husband."

Senior Sergeant Pat Tasker of Whakatane said the armed confrontation between the Black Power and Mongrel Mob took place at 4pm, and led to a car crash on Reid Rd.

The shot men were all from the same gang, which Mr Tasker would not name.

After the vehicles crashed, the injured were taken to hospital by ambulance and private car and Mr Tasker said others left on foot, "trying to evaporate into thin air".

Police roadblocks were last night set up on both sides of Taneatua and the armed offenders squad was called in from Tauranga.

It would conduct building and property searches throughout the night.

"If you are a gang member in Whakatane, you can expect a very unpleasant time," Mr Tasker said. "There will be some serious scrutiny."

Police had seized four vehicles involved in the confrontation. No arrests had been made.

Three ambulances arrived in Taneatua after police initially reported six victims of a shooting and a car accident.

They were required to treat only a 28-year-old man with a shotgun wound in his back, who was taken to Whakatane Hospital.

The shootings came a week after five men walked free from court, having been found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges.

The charges arose from a gang brawl in Whakatane's main street on May 25 last year during which Mongrel Mob associate Te Rangi Tait Carroll was stabbed to death.

A jury found them not guilty of Mr Carroll's murder and manslaughter after a three-and-a-half-week trial in the High Court at Rotorua.

This week, the men were charged with intentionally wounding Mr Carroll.

Mr Tasker said he could "say with some confidence" that the court case was not the reason for the gun battle.

But Whakatane mayor Colin Hammond said last night that the latest shooting was probably a reaction to the not-guilty verdicts.

"We had made a lot of progress over the past year but [the verdicts] may have stirred it all up."

Mr Hammond said he believed police had acted to "keep a lid" on the tension by charging the men again after they beat the murder charge, and he had faith in them to prevent any further retaliation.

"The police will be a lot more proactive this time and control the situation at a much earlier stage," he said.

The brawl that led to Mr Carroll's death led to fears of a full-scale gang war when a man was shot two days later in what was believed to be retaliation.

Armed police also stormed Taneatua when a car was run off the road, injuring three Black Power members.

Despite a police crackdown on gang activity in the region, the tension and violence continued.

Police asked schools to ban the wearing of gang colours by pupils.

A reserve grade club rugby game between Ruatoki, with its Black Power connections and Te Teko - another town where the Mongrel Mob has a strong presence - was cancelled because of gang rivalry fears.

Bay of Plenty Maori leaders gathered to discuss how to ease the tension between the gangs, which has existed in the Bay of Plenty area since the 1980s.