Brothers beaten in savage attack

Vili Kamoto, who was beaten in a street attack, and his sister Rachael Vakauta. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Rachael Vakauta could not find the words to describe what she felt when she ran out to the street and saw her two younger brothers being beaten by up to 12 armed men.

Her brother Sila Kamoto, 23, was lying unconscious in the middle of the road and gurgling blood.

Her youngest brother, 19-year-old Vili Kamoto, had a broken jaw, broken eye socket and broken cheek bone.

They had been set upon by the group armed with a sledgehammer, a crowbar, a baseball bat, a golf club and large logs of wood.

"When you see your two brothers on the ground like that there's just no words that can explain it," Mrs Vakauta said.

The attack, which has left Sila fighting for his life in hospital, happened around 10.45pm on Saturday.

Detective Senior Sergeant Gerry Whitley said the two brothers were walking to a takeaway shop near Morrie Laing Ave in Mt Roskill when they were ambushed by up to 12 people believed to be aged 18 to 23.

The beating quickly turned to bludgeoning, which continued well after Sila lost consciousness.

It was only when Mrs Vakauta and nearby residents intervened that the group finally dispersed.

When police arrived seven minutes later, Sila was bleeding heavily from the head. He had three fractures to his skull, a broken back and bruising to the brain.

He last night remained in a critical condition in Auckland Hospital.

His brother Vili has been released from hospital but yesterday, as his sister thanked police and hospital staff for their work and care, he was unable to talk about the events that led to the beating.

His left eye was purple and swollen shut. His split jaw, swollen and still bandaged, made it difficult for him to talk.

Mrs Vakauta said she was grateful for the long hours police were putting in to find the men who injured her brothers.

Mr Whitley said police are treating the street attack as a possible homicide inquiry and he appealed for anyone with information, including the families of those involved, to come forward.

Police are still investigating whether the ambush was connected to an earlier brawl that night in which four or five people were seen fighting in Molley Green Reserve.

A resident called the police to report that fight but they did not arrive because a worker at the Northern Communications Centre failed to pass the job to dispatch.

An investigation into the mishandled call is now under way but Mr Whitley said he believed the lack of police response to the call had no bearing on what happened later.

He said it was not known if the group seen brawling in Molley Green Reserve earlier in the evening was involved in the attack on the brothers later on.