A teenager was operated on by brain surgeons after he was stabbed in the eye with an umbrella in South Auckland.
The New Zealand Management Academies business student was attacked with the umbrella during his lunch break in Otahuhu on December 1.
It is understood the end of the umbrella
perforated the back of his eye socket and entered his brain in a gang-related feud over the colour of his attacker's hat. The victim appears to have initiated the altercation.
John Ikalie, an associate who was in the area at the time, said the victim, who he only knew as "Bsup", was a member of the Bloods gang.
"He asked two guys sitting at the bus stop to take their blue hats off," he said.
Ikalie said he saw a scuffle and his friend staggering towards the academy.
Moe Safin, who works at the Station Net Cafe, said the boy and his friends were regulars at the internet and gaming arcade.
"They have this thing, the Crips and the Bloods. The guys that wear blue got the guy that wears red in the eye," he said.
He had seen the same boy "hassling" young boys for wearing blue the week before. "I think it was revenge for picking on the kids because a week later a Crips member stabs him in the eye with an umbrella," Safin said.
Police spokesman Andy Wallis confirmed a 16-year-old was stabbed in the eye with an umbrella during an "altercation" at the Otahuhu bus stop. He said CIB were investigating but the boy was not co-operating.
The boy's father, who was in the area at the time, also refused to answer questions, Wallis said.
St John spokesman Brett Tobeck said the boy was taken to Middlemore Hospital and transferred to Auckland City Hospital's neurosurgery unit.
New Zealand Management Academies director Mark Worsop said after the attack the boy had returned to the school, a block away from the bus stop, and the administration staff called an ambulance.
"It had nothing to do with the school. It happened in the Otahuhu township after class," he said.
The boy was completing a Certificate in Business Administration and Employment Skills Level 3.
