NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Gangster life blamed for five shootings in Ōtara in two days

John Weekes
By John Weekes
Senior Business Reporter·NZ Herald·
23 Nov, 2020 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

24 November, 2021. Armed police officers on the streets of Ōtara after five shooting incidents in two days. Video / Brett Phibbs

A gun crime spree in South Auckland has highlighted drive-by shooting culture and frustrated community leaders who blame poverty and the glorification of gang lifestyles for the shootings.

After at least five recent gang-related shootings in two days, some Ōtara residents are on edge while others are frustrated at crime again dragging their neighbourhood's name down.

Police have confirmed all five shootings since Friday are linked and involve an organised crime group.

It led to an increased police presence in the suburb over the weekend with officers in the streets carrying firearms.

Boxer and businessman Dave Letele said Ōtara had a lot to offer, but grinding poverty meant some kids had few opportunities.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's not just an Ōtara problem. This is a problem throughout any deprived area. The thing that concerns me is crime and the gangster life is so glamourised."

Dave Letele says it is concerning crime and the gangster life is so glamourised. Photo / Dean Purcell
Dave Letele says it is concerning crime and the gangster life is so glamourised. Photo / Dean Purcell

Letele's father was a Mongrel Mob president.

He said the apparent trappings of gangster life - cash, flashy cars, pretty women - often concealed a reality of violence, jail time, and squandered lives.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's just not glamorous."

But Letele said kids who grew up poor, and weren't good at school, unsurprisingly saw some criminals as role models.

Discover more

Crime

'Escalation of violence': Police to carry guns after shooting spree

22 Nov 03:12 AM
New Zealand|crime

Weekend shootings keep police busy across Auckland

21 Nov 09:54 PM
New Zealand|crime

Auckland man on trial for allegedly raping partner 16 years ago

23 Nov 01:17 AM
New Zealand

Gassed in their cells, 'begging' for food at Auckland Women's prison

23 Nov 05:49 PM

"The only people you're looking to are the drug dealers and the gang members ... It's the lure of making quick money.

"No one likes being poor."

Letele said it was disappointing the violence overshadowed good local initiatives.

He said the Covid-19 lockdown brought out the best in some locals, such as volunteers who established food banks.

Ōtara sprouted the Tribesmen in the 1980s and a generation later, the Killer Beez.

The latter was initially a feeder gang for the Tribesmen, but in recent years tensions flared between the two.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In 2018, conflict spilled into a Mt Wellington Harley-Davidson store, where the Tribesmen's Okusitino Tae shot and paralysed Killer Beez president Josh Masters.

A senior police source told the Herald drive-bys were far more common in New Zealand than most people thought.

This was because victims were often reluctant to report shootings, especially if residents in targeted houses were gang affiliates.

Drive-bys were typically a domination tactic gangs used. Turf battles could be the trigger for a drive-by, as could revenge.

Shootings often involved low-calibre weapons or shotguns fired from far away. And in some cases, there was a tendency to view the incidents as victimless crimes.

But it took just one reckless act, or one miscalculation for tragedy to strike - as happened when a toddler was shot dead in a Whanganui drive-by shooting in 2007.

Not far from where a gun was fired on Preston Rd last weekend, the Tonga family's house proudly bears at least 30 flags of their namesake homeland.

On Monday, their neighbourhood was the focus of police attention. A police station wagon or unmarked car or SUV drove by about every five minutes on average.

Amanaki Tonga, left, and his son Ilaija Tonga say Ōtara is a great place to live. Photo / John Weekes
Amanaki Tonga, left, and his son Ilaija Tonga say Ōtara is a great place to live. Photo / John Weekes

That attention did not bother father-of-five Amanaki Tonga.

Neither did the fact police for part of the weekend were routinely carrying firearms, in response to the heightened local gang tensions.

"If you're a good person, it doesn't matter," he said. "But if you're a bad person, you worry."

He loved Ōtara, said nowhere else felt like home, and people in the suburb could be successful and happy.

But he said unemployment and disconnection from the family or community sparked problems.

His son Ilaija said the shootings weren't shocking.

"You can't stop it. It's just going to happen."

"If you ever come round here on Sundays on Preston Rd, you'll see the gangs riding around but they're not making trouble."

He said trouble could happen anywhere in the world.

"When we have a shooting in Ōtara, people highlight it, blast it up."

The 21-year-old said people who perpetuated negative stereotypes about Ōtara should visit the neighbourhood.

"Come to our park and buy some food. Or go to Ōtara and buy some chicken thighs."

"It's cheaper here," his father added. "It's still safe."

Kaumātua and adventurer Busby Noble said Ōtara was often marginalised.

He said some elders and community leaders felt like they were staring down a wave of negative influences.

That wave combined US street gang and violent video game culture, consumerism, and an education system that he felt often sidelined Māori.

Armed police at one of the scenes in Otara. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Armed police at one of the scenes in Otara. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Noble said at-risk youth should be helped before the crest of the wave broke and smashed them.

He said mainstream institutions and the police often did not understand that Ōtara had its own soul and its own culture.

"They're trying themselves to read places and people and things, and not one of them is paying attention to the spirit of the place."

Outside Ōtara town centre shopping mall, Noble encountered another kaumātua who extolled the suburb's virtues.

The neighbourhood was beautiful and vibrant, he said.

But he told Noble a few reckless, swaggering idiots who wanted to brandish weapons were endangering everybody else.

By yesterday afternoon police said officers in Counties Manukau were no longer routinely carrying firearms.

Investigations into the shootings are ongoing but police have seized an unspecified amount of ammunition, and other items associated with firearms.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
New Zealand|crime

200 dodgy visas granted for businesses linked to Vietnamese cannabis houses

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Letters to the Editor

Letters: Where have our statesman gone?

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Opinion

Shane Te Pou: Springsteen is a pulse of musical power for the working class

05 Jul 05:00 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
200 dodgy visas granted for businesses linked to Vietnamese cannabis houses

200 dodgy visas granted for businesses linked to Vietnamese cannabis houses

05 Jul 05:00 PM

Investigation revealed how Vietnamese crime groups exploited hundreds of migrant workers.

Premium
Letters: Where have our statesman gone?

Letters: Where have our statesman gone?

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Shane Te Pou: Springsteen is a pulse of musical power for the working class

Shane Te Pou: Springsteen is a pulse of musical power for the working class

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Editorial: Kiwis support the business battler, not the shoplifter

Editorial: Kiwis support the business battler, not the shoplifter

05 Jul 05:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP