The pair, aged 22 and 24, made their first appearance in the Auckland High Court on Wednesday following their arrests late last year for the August shootings.
In one of the suburban Auckland attacks, a man who opened the door and was then fired upon had his shoulder grazed by a bullet.
The men pleaded not guilty via their lawyers Jasper Rhodes and Justin Harder to charges including attempted murder, arson and discharging a firearm with reckless disregard for the safety of others.
The arson charge relates to the torching of two stolen cars allegedly used to commit the August 25 attacks.
The younger man, who is on bail, faces a charge of possessing methamphetamine.
His counterpart is in custody.
Justice David Johnstone set a trial date of June 9, 2025, for a three-week hearing. Both men sought for their interim name suppression to continue, a request granted ahead of a name suppression hearing on February 15.
Police said it was “incredibly fortunate” no one was badly hurt during the shootings at two suburban properties.
One villa in a leafy Epsom street was targeted in a drive-by shooting while a number of people were home, including children.
Bullets struck the home but no one was injured.
In the second attack, at another home in the suburb of Hillsborough, about a 10-minute drive away, the alleged assailants left the car and walked to the front door.
An occupant of the house, the brother-in-law of the former gangster, answered a knock at the door and was greeted by gunfire.
He narrowly avoided serious injury or death, with one bullet grazing his shoulder.
While the police described the shootings as “gang-related”, the victims are highly qualified medical professionals from a well-respected family with no links to the criminal world.
The family of a drug dealer who left the Comancheros gang has been targeted in two shootings in Auckland.
But their brother was, until recently, a high-ranking member of the Comancheros.
Khalid Naser Slaimankhel is serving six years in prison for methamphetamine and money laundering following Operation Maddale, an investigation targeting underworld figures moving drugs through a New Lynn car dealership.
At the sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court last year, the 35-year-old claimed he would leave the Comancheros.
The police investigation into the August shootings, dubbed Operation Pyrite, yielded the arrests of the pair in December.
“It is incredibly fortunate no one was physically injured during either of these incidents,” Detective Inspector Tom Gollan of the police National Organised Crime Group said.
“The victims were, however, left traumatised and continue to receive support.”
Gollan said the alleged “gang-related incident” was concerning to the wider community and he did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.
The sister of Slaimankhel, whose husband was the alleged victim of the attempted murder charge, declined to comment when the Herald visited their Hillsborough home after the arrests of the men last year.
Slaimankhel was a child when he came to New Zealand with his Afghan family. His father, Dr Hashem Slaimankhel, was a respected community leader.
The elder Slaimankhel later returned to his homeland as a health worker. He was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in 2018.
Khalid Slaimankhel blamed his father’s traumatic death for his own fall into the world of gangs and drugs, defence lawyer Mark Ryan told the Auckland District Court at his client’s sentencing last year.
After imposing a sentence of six years imprisonment, Judge Evangelos Thomas turned his attention to Slaimankhel’s supporters in the courtroom.
He encouraged them to keep supporting him after his eventual release from prison, to help him leave the Comancheros.
“If people aren’t working hard around him, he’s going to be straight into that [gang] environment,” Judge Thomas said. “This work is really only beginning now.”
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
