KEY POINTS:
A 9-year-old boy living near the scene of a hit-and-run in Murupara where an innocent youth died this week has a broken leg because he got into a scrap with Mongrel Mob members' sons.
"I got into a rumble and I didn't want to stop because I didn't
want to be a pussy."
His father, a patched member of the local - rival - Tribesmen gang, was too busy fighting with the older patched gangsters to worry about what his son was doing.
Today the boy's parents have left him home alone despite the murderer or murderers still being on the loose. He doesn't know when or where they went - they left while he was out riding his bike.
The family plan on moving to the neighbouring town of Kaingaroa because "they're Tribesmen so they will look after us", the boy says proudly.
Next door, several people sit on a deck outside their house to intimidate reporters. They tell a Maori journalist to "Get the f*** off my property" when he tries approaching them.
Everyone in the community, where 90 per cent of the 1839 residents are Maori, are either related to or know the family involved in the tragedy.
A dead cat surrounded by flies on the footpath doesn't take the gore away from the rusty cars sitting on overgrown lawns next to rundown houses.
Over the back fence, on the main street, the town - set up in the 1950s for forestry workers - has the necessities: a bakery, liquor store, takeaway shop, Four Square, council offices, police station and a Work and Income New Zealand building.
The bakery only offers two sandwiches and a handful of deep-fried food. A slice of pizza and a battered crab stick costs $1.70.
The main drag is bustling with people despite being a week day.
Apart from the women shopping at the supermarket who haven't changed out of their pyjamas, most people wear yellow including children who don bandannas covering their faces in support of the local gang.
The principal of the local Maori total immersion school, Pem Bird, says there is a strong Tribesmen presence in the small eastern Bay of Plenty town but he insists they aren't a problem because they "co-exist" with the locals.
Rangitahi Marae, where Jordan Herewini's body lay, last year hosted hundreds of Tribesmen for the gang's inaugural poker run which Rotorua police had earlier warned the public about.
The town is on the map for all the wrong reasons. It's known as the hometown of rape whistleblower Louise Nicholas and where she alleged some of the abuse by local policemen happened.
And it hit headlines in 2007 when two unregistered dogs killed 56-year-old ambulance worker Virginia Ohlson.
Two years ago, the Ministry of Education sent a commissioner - its highest level of intervention - to sort out problems at the local Rangitahi College.
But an Education Review Office report last year still told of bullying, fighting, stealing, vandalism, damage to school property and of staff being verbally abused.
According to the latest census, half of the residents aged over 15 have no school or post-school qualifications, compared with 29 per cent for the whole Bay of Plenty.
About 57 per cent of those who are of working age have an annual income of $20,000 or less, with most working as labourers. The unemployment rate is 18 per cent.
But the founders of Network Murupara, a community initiative set up in 2005, are attempting to reinvent the town by implementing a maintenance plan in the town centre, delivering affordable home repairs and organising sports events and holiday programmes.
Police investigating Jordan Herewini's death say they have "a long list of persons" they are seeking to talk to before any arrests are made.
