Detective Inspector Faa Va'aelua said police had been taking to the victim to try to find out what happened. He said police did not believe it was a random shooting and were looking for two Tongan men believed to be involved.
Greenwood Rd would be cordoned off today while police examined the scene and forensically analysed a vehicle found there.
Fly Park manager Robert Prendergast said he saw two cars parked on Greenwood Rd when he left work about 9pm.
"It was pissing down with rain, several people were outside the cars and I thought 'What are these idiots doing outside in the rain?'. It was very strange."
He said he did not think any more of it because five or six cars were often parked on the road with people sleeping in them.
"It is normally pretty quiet down there, no street lights or houses. Just the big Watercare plant."
Sarah Davis, of airport car parking company Fly Park, said she saw a helicopter circling and police cars on Greenwood Rd between 3.30am and 4am.
"I was working when it all happened. It's all dark down those ways and it doesn't have any street lights. There's no houses, they took all the houses away from there about 15 years ago."
Heavy traffic after an earlier incident in Wallace Rd, Mangere Bridge. Photo / Michael Craig
She said Greenwood Rd was closed but the Fly Park was operating as usual. Police have also blocked Creamery Rd, diverting traffic to Kirkbride Rd where traffic was crawling. A black police helicopter is hovering over the block between Greenwood Rd and Kirkbride Rd.
Chris Olsen, who runs Kiwi Shuttles is at the corner of Ascot Rd and Greenwood Rd, said people often dumping rubbish on Greenwood Rd.
"Cars are always coming down there in the middle of the night. It is where the city comes to dump its rubbish. Now two bodies have seen dumped, it's pretty sad."
About a year ago a body had been left on the corner outside his business, he said.
Cars had been racing down the road at the time, and he suspected the person had been beaten up and then left there.
A police officer at the corner of Ascot Rd and Greenwood Rd said the road may be cordoned off all day.
They are working opposite Watercare's Mangere wastewater treatment plant, which has paddocks and construction sites on one border. Crops are growing in fields towards the Kirkbride Rd end.
