CCTV footage of Wairoa shooting

Police have released cctv images from a gang related shooting on October 29, 2010 where the victim was shot through the drivers window and the gunman made off in a black honda hatchback. Photo / NZPA

Eights months after the event, police have released CCTV footage of a gang-related shooting on the forecourt of a northern Hawkes Bay service station.

They are hoping the footage, and photos, will help identify the offender in the shooting, after the gangs - the Mongrel Mob and Black Power - closed ranks and are not talking.

A 49-year-old Mongrel Mob member was shot through the window of his white double cab ute at the Mobil service station on October 29.

Several shots were fired through the closed driver's window of the car, leaving the man with shotgun pellet wounds to his arm and body and internal injuries.

He was hospitalised but has now recovered.

The shooting, on a busy Friday evening in the main street, came three days after another gang-related shooting in the town, where a Black Power associate was shot outside the Mongrel Mob headquarters.

The service station shooting was clearly a retaliatory attack, said Detective Sergeant Stephen Smith of Gisborne CIB today.

He said no arrests had been made for either incident and the investigation had been hampered by a lack of co-operation as gangs were involved.

"We have spoken to dozens of people about the attack, but we are no closer to finding the person who pulled the trigger on the victim. The gang issue has made things difficult for us, and we are appealing to the wider community to help us find who is responsible for this."

Footage from the service station's CCTV camera shows the victim getting into his car and a man with a sawn-off shotgun suddenly appearing at his car window.

Shots are fired into the car and the gunman then runs off to a waiting vehicle.

The victim's wife was in the passenger seat at the time but was unhurt.

Two days later police found the getaway car - a black Honda Civic - burned out in a rural area south of Wairoa. It has been stolen in Napier.

The gunman was wearing a cap, long shorts, socks and shoes and had a blue bandanna pulled up over his mouth and nose. His long-sleeved top had a distinctive white design on the front.

Mr Smith said it was important that police were given as much information as possible about the shooting and other gang-related incidents in Wairoa.

Police said they had charged several people in relation to a number of gang-related violent incidents in the town over the last 12 months.

- NZPA