KEY POINTS:
A man has admitted the shotgun killing of a gangland rival on the streets of south Auckland.
Details of the powder keg of tension in area were revealed in the police summary of the slaying of Haruru Pekepo in Otahuhu in the early hours of July 16 last
year.
Drink, firearms, a thirst for vengeance and threats of home invasion emerged from the police account of the build-up to the shooting.
The case against three men, set down for four weeks, ended abruptly last night in the High Court at Auckland when they admitted an amended indictment.
One of the police exhibits was a video the FRS gang (F...ing Ruthless Souljahs) made of themselves drinking, brandishing weapons and making threats towards a rival gang calling itself, less flamboyantly, the SPIs or South Pacific Islanders.
Semisi James Moala pleaded guilty to the murder of 19-year-old Mr Pekepo.
Moala, aged 22 of Otara, also pleaded guilty to being a party to causing grievous bodily harm to Tevita Laui, who received a shotgun blast to the arm during the same fracas.
Moala's associate, Siale Taiala, 23 of Otahuhu, admitted being a party to the manslaughter of Mr Pekepo and also to being the principal offender in the shooting of Mr Laui.
Moala's younger brother Alec Junior Moala, now aged 18, whose name suppression lapsed at the start of the trial, admitted being an accessory after the fact by disposing of the murder weapon.
He was granted bail pending sentence next month. The other two were remanded in custody by Justice Patricia Courtney.
Initially all three had been accused of murder.
Court papers say that a week before the fatal shooting, a cousin of the Moala brothers was beaten up by Mr Laui's elder brother, James, behind the Countdown supermarket in Otahuhu.
During the altercation Semisi Moala told his younger brother to get a gun.
On his return, he pointed the gun at Mr Pekepo, who got in a car and ran into him twice with the vehicle.
James Laui grabbed the gun, though curiously it was eventually handed back to Semisi Moala.
During the following week, police investigators say, the rival gangs threatened and taunted each other and rumours started circulating about a possible "home invasion" by the SPI.
On the evening of the shooting a number of the FSR were sitting drinking in their cars at the East Tamaki Rugby Club carpark before going to a garage at a property in Otahuhu where they continued drinking and amused themselves "rapping."
The gathering, showing two firearms being brandished and one of them being pumped, was filmed on a mobile phone camera.
Outside the garage, Semisi Moala fired the shotgun in the air before leading the drunken group, armed with sticks and baseball bats, on a walk through the streets of Otahuhu looking for SPI victims.
Eventually, after more drinking, they drove to an address in Nikau Rd where they knocked on a door and told the female occupant that they had three shotguns and wanted to put James Laui and his brother David (Tevita) "in a coffin".
They then drove off and met a group of SPI at the junction with Awa Street where a number of fights broke out.
According to the summary, Taiala reached into the boot and got the shotgun and fired at and hit an SPI car that was being moved.
Semisi Moala then picked up the gun and reloaded it.
In the confrontation that followed, Mr Pekepo removed his jacket and shirt, and waving his arms in the air, said "Come on then".
He advanced to within three metres of Moala who shot him in the face, killing him almost instantly.
Neighbours and other SPI members then attacked and beat Moala, who dropped the gun and fled, pursued by Tevita Laui.
Taiala picked up the gun and fired at Mr Laui to get him off Moala, hitting him in the right arm.
The younger Moala later got rid of the weapon.
- NZPA
