“We actually saw the one that passed, the 21st birthday boy. We actually saw him fall to the ground,” she said.
“It was sad; screaming, yelling, crying. It is sad seeing things like that. I just feel for the family — especially the birthday boy.”
She said a car had been doing burnouts on the street near the party a few hours before the party and she believes one of the occupants was one of the people who arrived uninvited later on and caused the incident.
“I heard that the car was just rarking up the party; I don’t know.”
She never believed something like this would happen so close to where she and her whānau lived, she said.
“They were all having a good night. They were just having a good celebration with their family and friends until these uninvited guests ruined it.”
A Lytton Road resident said she stepped outside to the sound of women screaming.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the resident, who lives only a few doors away from where the party took place, said she heard screaming at about 11.30pm and stepped outside.
“I just heard all the screaming. Women screaming. I came out and saw everybody on the road and they were just all in one pack,” the resident said.
“It was just hard to identify who was who in the dark.”
It all “happened in a few minutes” and it was unclear how many people were involved but it appeared to be a lot of mostly young people, she said.
She said she knew of the family who lived at the address and they were “lovely people”.
Another resident, who declined to be named, said he did not hear anything on the night of the incident and only woke up to police down the street. He only knew the residents of the address where the party took place in passing, but they seemed to be nice people and what happened “was a shame”.
Two other residents living at nearby properties both said they had not heard anything on Saturday night.
No police appeared to be parked or standing outside Gisborne Hospital at 10am.
