Footage released during trial of gang member shooting which took place at Sofitel hotel Auckland in 2021. Video / Supplied
Cowering in the corner of a locked room with the lights off, Taryn Caulfield’s voice shook as she spoke with a 111 operator on the morning of April 15 last year to report a shooting in the lobby of Auckland’s five-star Sofitel Hotel.
“I was walking out towards reception and there was two guys,” said Caulfield, a social media manager for the Viaduct-area hotel who said she was just steps away when the shots rang out. “One pulled out a gun and started shooting towards the other guy and our staff at reception.”
The call was played for jurors today in the High Court at Auckland as prosecutors continued to present their case against five Head Hunters gang members and associates accused of aiding in the shooting that morning. It is alleged a member of rival outlaw motorcycle gang the Mongols was targeted.
An armed police officer stands guard at the Sofitel after the shooting in the CBD linked to a feud between rival gangs the Head Hunters and Mongols. Photo / Jason Oxenham
No one was injured in the shooting, but the rival gang member and a receptionist at the hotel who had been helping him check out could be seen on CCTV diving out of their chairs and into a back room after a bullet hit the wall near them.
Head Hunters member Hone Reihana pleaded guilty last week to having pulled the trigger after weeks of violence between the two gangs that had, up until that point, played out in areas of Auckland less frequented by tourists. He’s set to be sentenced at a later date for discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The remaining five co-defendants - Marcus Nielson, Fred Tanuvasa, Tyran Panapa, Paraire Paikea and a man who has name suppression - have been charged as parties to the same crime because they ought to have known violence was likely to occur, prosecutors said at the outset of their trial this week.
Five Head Hunters motorcycle gang members and associates are on trial in the High Court at Auckland. They are, left to right on the bottom row, Paraire Paikea, Marcus Nielsen and Fred Tanuvasa. On the top row is a man with name suppression and Tyran Panapa. Photo / Michael Craig
The men’s lawyers have said there’s no evidence their clients knew Reihana would “impulsively” open fire that day.
Testifying today via audio-video feed, Caulfield recalled she had been getting a coffee around 9am.
“It all happened so quickly, but as I glanced up I saw the two men turn around towards me,” she said. “I saw the man pulled out a small pistol or handgun ... and before I knew it I heard a shot.
“I turned in the other direction and started running.”
Co-worker Georgina Grey, who was director of sales for the hotel, said she had been working out of a little room behind the reception area when she heard a “really loud bang” and assumed a large painting might have dropped in the lobby.
“I was walking out of the room and at that point my colleague, he was basically sprinting into the room I was based in,” she recalled, explaining that Caulfield also ran in. “She was incredibly distressed. She said, ‘There’s a gunman!’ or ‘There’s someone shooting!’
“She went straight to the back of the room and hid in the corner as far as she could.”
They shut the door and turned off the lights, then called 111, trying to speak quietly.
During the call, the social media manager told the operator that a friend of the shooter was wearing red sneakers.
Later that morning Panapa, a co-defendant described by prosecutors as a Head Hunters prospect at the time, was taken into custody as he returned to the hotel. He sat down that same day for a brief interview with Detective Mark Wardlaw, who noted his bright red shoes.
In the interview, which lasted just 12 minutes, Panapa acknowledged he had been a guest at the hotel the night before. It had been a low-key night involving room service and a movie, he said, declining to say who else had been in the room with him.
“I don’t want to go into detail, really,” he said.
He also acknowledged hearing a “bang” as he left the hotel that morning to get a burger.
“I’m not too sure who I left with,” he told the detective. “I don’t know what happened, bro. I was walking out. I heard it but I didn’t see it.”
The detective noted that, aside from the shoes, he appeared to be wearing different clothes when he later returned to the hotel. Panapa told the officer he “probably knew that I was going to be in here” and “wanted to make sure that I was warm” so he replaced his shorts with pants. He lost the bag with his old clothes before returning to the hotel, he said.
When asked why the person who was shot at might have been targeted, Panapa responded: “I wouldn’t have a clue, bro”.
Prosecutors are likely to call their final witnesses tomorrow as the trial continues before Justice Simon Moore.
