Napier shooting victim was working at construction site

Police at the scene of the shooting on Monday. The construction site can be seen on the right. Photo / Paul Taylor

A man injured in a shooting along a suburban street in Napier had just finished work on a construction site and was getting ready to leave.

Police are still looking for the alleged shooter following the incident on Monday's public holiday at about 1.15pm, which landed one man in his 30s in hospital with a serious leg injury.

He was in a stable condition in hospital as of Wednesday.

The shooting happened in the usually-quiet suburb of Greenmeadows outside a construction site where the victim had been working.

PGC Constructors owner Paul Banister said the man was at the housing project on the corner of Tait Dr and Lamason St prior to the incident.

"He had been working on site that morning and was packing up to leave," Banister, whose company is overseeing the project, said.

Police collecting evidence from the scene. Photo / Paul Taylor

"He was not one of our employees, but he was an employee of a sub-contractor."

Banister said he understood the man was the last to leave the site that day, and there were no other workers there at the time.

Police have since released an image of a maroon Mazda MPV minivan and want to hear from anyone who spotted it in Greenmeadows between 1pm and 1.30pm that day.

A nearby resident, who did not want to be named, said she had seen the victim working on the construction site that morning and he appeared to be the only worker there.

Police are looking for this maroon Mazda van after a shooting in Napier on Monday. Photo / NZ Police

She said she felt for him having to work the public holiday, and he appeared to be sanding the outside of a building.

She said she heard a "mighty loud noise" while she was having a lay-down but assumed it was a crash.

"It was like 'bang' and I thought oh my gosh someone has driven into something solid."

She said she did not hear anything after that, and only went to look outside when a family member called her asking about the incident.

She said the street was swarming with police cars and the worker was being treated by paramedics.

"They had him there quite a while. I saw him going off in the ambulance."

She said she went and spoke to a police officer who told her the man had been "shot in the leg".

She has lived in the area for 30 years and could not remember any other shootings over the years in the area.

The shooting happened close to a popular preschool, Footsteps, which was fortunately closed for Queen Elizabeth II's memorial day public holiday.

The site is also just 200m away from Napier's premier playground at Anderson Park.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police on 105 and use file reference number 220926/0015.