A post mortem examination will begin today of Mongrel Mob member Daniel Eliu, who was shot dead outside a South Auckland church on Saturday.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va’aelua said police had this morning completed the scene examination at the location of yesterday’s fatal shooting.
Eliu was shot after attending an event for people moving away from their lives of crime at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Puhunui Rd in Manukau.
“The investigation is ongoing to identify the persons responsible,” Va’aelua said.
Leader of the Grace Foundation David Letele Snr, who witnessed the killing told the Herald Eliu, who had a violent past, was a person in need of hope and healing.
Letele, who had known Eliu for years, said Eliu had been part of the programme for about six months.
The event was a graduation celebration for those who have completed the event, and people were standing around waiting for a Christmas meal to be served when the shooting happened, Letele said.
“We weren’t too sure what had actually happened, just heard the sounds. It didn’t quite sound like a firearm, it sounded quite quiet.
“We just noticed the victim sort of stumbling and then a guy running away from the area. Then we realised that something had happened to him so we quickly laid him down and ascertained what it was that had happened, then we realised that he’d been shot.”
The group applied CPR until the ambulance arrived.
“It was kind of over by then.”
Eliu had an extensive criminal past and also had links to the Head Hunters.
He was once involved in a horrific kidnapping of a suspected “nark”, for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for wounding to cause grievous bodily harm.
In the 2006 offending, Eliu had held down a man who had “narked” on an associate of his, who then attacked the victim with a Stanley knife. The victim in the attack had his face slashed from his jaw to hairline.
According to the 2008 Court of Appeal judgment text, Eliu’s victim suffered significant wounds to his chest, arm and face, with the latter serving as a continual reminder to the victim of what had happened.
“You, Mr Eliu, clearly intended to kidnap the victim for revenge to be exacted upon him and you softened him up for that revenge to take place,” the judgement said.
But Letele said Eliu was “like many others that come to us”.
“Just in need of some hope and some healing, and you know, just to get on a journey that’s more positive.”
Letele said he felt “numb” after the incident.
“It’s not something you want to experience . . . it was just out the gate stuff, it was just unreal.”
Letele, a former Mongrel Mob member himself, founded the Grace Foundation with his wife Tui. It is a charity seeking to empower and assist marginalised members of the community.
Va’aelua said the shooting appeared to be an isolated incident and the victim was “deliberately targeted”.
Anyone who has information that could assist with inquiries is asked to contact police on 105 and reference file number 221217/6485.
Information can also be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.