A patched member of the Killer Beez gang lost an eye during a gang shooting in a Nelson car park in 2021. A patched member of the Black Power gang was sentenced in relation to the shooting in the Nelson District Court today. Photo / NZME
A patched member of the Killer Beez gang lost an eye during a gang shooting in a Nelson car park in 2021. A patched member of the Black Power gang was sentenced in relation to the shooting in the Nelson District Court today. Photo / NZME
Ten of Ashley McIlroy’s 32 years have been spent in prison, and now he’ll be there for another five-and-a-half years.
The patched member of the Black Power gang was sentenced today on charges related to a shooting in a central Nelson car park in 2021, that left a rival gang member blind in one eye.
He was also sentenced on other charges that arose in the aftermath, for which a co-offender was also sentenced today.
The 34-year-old co-offender, who was awaiting trial on other matters, was sentenced to five months in prison on a charge of attempting to be an accessory after the fact to wounding with reckless disregard.
McIlroy, who appeared in the Nelson District Court via audio-visual link from Mount Eden Prison, made a direct plea to the judge to accept his apology and efforts to turn around a life broken since he was 8 years old.
But Judge David Ruth said despite McIlroy’s huge difficulties in life, and steps made to try and fix it, “gang warfare with firearms must be deterred”.
McIlroy was recently found guilty by a jury on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.
He later admitted related charges of illegal possession and carriage of a firearm and four charges of driving while suspended.
In the early hours of May 16, 2021, McIlroy was out on the town in central Nelson.
At around 3.30 am, he was standing in a central city alleyway known as Fiddle Lane when he was approached by several people known to him, who were all members or associates of the rival Killer Beez gang.
McIlroy and one of the rival members got into a disagreement that turned into a brief fight.
Fiddle Lane in Nelson City, where an altercation between rival gang members started, then ended in a nearby location with shots being fired. Photo / Google
The shooting
The police summary of facts said a short time later he drove a friend’s Hilux to nearby Wakatu Square car park where members of the rival gang were.
McIlroy got out and approached the group in an aggressive manner before returning to the vehicle to get a BSA .22 rifle.
Judge Ruth said he appeared clearly in the CCTV footage to be “a man very much pumped up” and walking in a way that he was “prepared to take on the world”.
When members of the opposing group approached him McIlroy pointed the firearm at them, before appearing to fire several shots at them, reloading the bolt action rifle in between shots.
At one point a shot shattered the front passenger window of a car parked close by.
Judge Ruth said it was good luck more than good management that the outcome was not more serious.
McIlroy and an associate then drove off, but “looped around the car park”, returning to where the rival gang members were gathered.
McIlroy, a passenger in the vehicle, pointed the firearm toward the group.
He fired the gun and the bullet ricocheted off a building, causing shrapnel to fly into the car park, and into the eye of a man standing with the rival group.
The fragment caused serious enough injury that he lost his sight in one eye.
Wakatu Square car park in central Nelson, where a member of the Killer Beez gang was left blind in one eye after he was hit by shrapnel from a stray bullet, fired by a rival gang member. Photo / Google
About half an hour after the shooting McIlroy telephoned the man, who was also sentenced today.
A police investigation which included an electronic interception of McIlroy’s cell phone showed 12 telephone calls between the two over the three days that followed, some unanswered.
On May 19, 2021, the man suggested to McIlroy to get his associate who was at the shooting to get rid of the Hilux he’d been in at the time, to avoid police being able to get forensic evidence from it.
He told McIlroy to have the associate report the Hilux stolen and to claim insurance on it, or if the vehicle was uninsured, to fill out a change of ownership paper to show that the Hilux was sold two weeks prior.
He then agreed to organise a vehicle for McIlroy, and the pair arranged to meet at his home, but McIlroy was stopped by the police and arrested before he got there.
During a search of the vehicle police found a lever action .44 Magnum rifle wedged between the front passenger seat and the centre console.
Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber said today that while the weapon was not loaded, McIlroy had threatened to use it against the people he’d already shot at.
Defence lawyer Tony Bamford said McIlroy acknowledged his actions were foolhardy, and that he placed the public at risk.
McIlroy told the court in a letter of apology he was sorry and couldn’t justify what he had done or minimise the impact on the victim or his family.
Prior to the events he had only recently moved to Nelson to try to get away from the life of drugs and crime that have marred his life from a young age.
He was making progress when the break up of a relationship sent him spiralling out of control.
“I can’t blame my upbringing, but it has impacted me in so many ways,” said McIlroy, who the court heard was living on the street as an 8-year-old, before turning to crime and a pathway to prison as a youth.
“I failed to make the right choices at the worst of times,” he said, and that jail was “like my second home”.
Judge Ruth said there had been “some debate” about McIlroy’s statements over wanting to break free from his gang connections, which had been formed at a young age.
