KEY POINTS:
A shopkeeper is recovering after being shot in an armed robbery yesterday afternoon. Xu Mei Ying was last night in a stable condition at North Shore Hospital after an operation on her left arm.
The 46-year-old was waiting for 19-year-old son, Jason You to start his shift at the family's Lynnray Dairy in Auckland's New Lynn when a lone man entered with a long-barrelled firearm.
Ying set off an alarm as he demanded cigarettes but was not fast enough to avoid being shot in her left arm. "I was supposed to be working," said an upset You from the family home.
"She was quick-thinking. Once she saw the person coming in she rang the alarm."
Staff from the shop's security company summoned by the alarm arrived to see the robber driving away in a silver-coloured car.
"I'm just glad it wasn't more serious," said the Unitec engineering student. "I'm in shock."
It is the second time the dairy has been hit in six months and the latest in a string of attacks on Asians in Auckland.
Last month, Navtej Singh was fatally shot during an evening robbery of his Manurewa liquor store.
Four days later 80-year-old Yin Ping Yang was severely beaten in her Randwick Park home and later died from her injuries.
The owner of the Manukau Hollywood Bakery, 39-year-old Joanne Wang, died five days later when she was run down in the car park of the Westfield Mall car park.
Ying and her husband Hui Chu An You bought the dairy two years ago.
The family had emigrated from China 13 years earlier to give their son the education he needed.
You was not sure how the family would cope going back to work, or even if they would.
Detective Steve Morris said the robbery happened about 2.20pm and was "all over in about five seconds".
Police were appealing for witnesses who may have seen the robber on Great North Rd.
A neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Charlotte, said loud sirens alerted her to the unfolding drama.
"There were four marked cop cars and an unmarked car. The ambulance turned up with the little St John stationwagon.
"The ambulance was there for about 40 minutes before it left."
Workers from the neighbouring Thai Food shop said the victim was a "very nice lady" and they were now "scared".
