South Auckland drive-by shootings: Killer Beez member pleads guilty

A Killer Beez gang member has pleaded guilty to his part in an alleged revenge plot, carried out on his 18th birthday, that terrorised a South Auckland neighbourhood.

William Nelson-Bell, now 19, is among multiple gang members accused of having shot at Ōtara homes in November 2020 after another member's patch and motorbike were stolen.

Authorities have previously said the shootings were intended to send a message to rival gang the Tribesmen but the damaged homes included neighbours who were inside at the time and had nothing to do with the gang warfare. No one was injured.

Appearing before Justice Kiri Tahana this morning in the High Court at Auckland, Nelson-Bell pleaded guilty to three counts of intentionally damaging property by shooting at homes on three different streets, as well as one count of aggravated burglary of a home in the same area and one count of participating in an organised criminal group.

The burglary conviction carries a maximum possible sentence of 14 years in prison, while the other charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The guilty pleas come one week after co-defendant Paul Cassidy pleaded guilty to similar charges and three months after fellow gang member Michael Crawford - the person whose items were stolen - admitted to having orchestrated the shootings.

Crawford was sentenced last month to seven years and four months in prison. Nelson-Bell and Cassidy both await sentencing in October.

Others have pleaded not guilty and await trial.

Police said more than two dozen people were believed to have been involved in the shootings, arriving from as far away as Picton after organising a meet-up via a Facebook Messenger group.

It appeared that high-powered semi-automatic firearms were used in the shootings, Justice Grant Powell said at Crawford's sentencing, describing the group as having felt "they were entitled to storm through communities in Ōtara, shooting wildly and recklessly as if they owned the place". He referred to the 2020 shootings as a precursor to the "reign of terror" in Auckland earlier this year due to rivalries between the two gangs.