KEY POINTS:
The apparent arson of a vacant state house in Wanganui early this morning could be a gang retaliation for the shooting death of a toddler, police have conceded.
The Housing Corporation property had a previous association with the Mongrel Mob, police said today.
"One is assuming that the Black Power are responsible," Wanganui police area commander Inspector Duncan MacLeod said.
"We are conducting our inquiries first and following through on any information we glean from that, or any possible witness sightings."
The possibility of further acts of retaliation could not be dismissed, he said.
"That's a possibility we have to consider. Certainly I'm not going to dismiss it (the fire) as a one-off."
He hoped anyone with information about any further actions of retribution would tell police.
"We need to nip it in the bud, sort it out early as opposed to anything eventuating in another injury or death."
The brick house on Akatea Street in Gonville was severely damaged by the blaze, just after 5am.
Detectives from Wanganui CIB had joined fire service investigators in a scene examination today. Three fire appliances attended the blaze.
The house was vacant, but Mr MacLeod could not say for how long.
The property is around the corner from the Puriri Street house where toddler Jhia Te Tua was killed in a fatal gang-related shooting 10 days ago, and police had canvassed the street last week.
Mr MacLeod said there were a number of gang-related homes within the suburb, but that one had not figured in the security operation within the city.
"It was an unoccupied house, we didn't have somebody sitting outside."
The fire did not change the course of the investigation into the child's death, Mr MacLeod said.
However it was possible that police staff numbers, and locations within the city being policed, might be reassessed.
"This is a complex inquiry, we are getting a wealth of information. There is more than one incident that we are looking at, and we are building up a picture and analysing the data that we have."
Jhia died from a gunshot to the chest on May 5, during a drive-by shooting at her home.
Her father was a patched member of Black Power, and four men, including a patched Mongrel Mob member and a gang prospect, are in custody, charged with offences relating to incidents in the lead-up to Jhia's death.
The men reappeared in Wanganui District Court today. They were further remanded in custody for a pre-depositions hearing on June 11. Their names have been suppressed.
There was a gang presence around the court, though no incidents were reported.
A heavy police presence at the court included officers with Bushmaster rifles instead of pistols, but there was nothing to be read into that, Mr MacLeod said.
"We had no specific information that things were going to happen. However, I have to look at the bigger picture and look at the protection of the community, as well as of my own staff. "
A toll-free phone line, 0508 FOR JHIA, launched yesterday for people with information about the shooting had already yielded some interesting information, Mr MacLeod said.
A 50-strong team has been assigned to investigate the shooting. The police helicopter Eagle, sent to the city last week, returned to Auckland today.
Officers had been to more than 300 houses in the area, and taken statements from over 200 witnesses.
Three vehicles believed to have been involved in events on the day of the shooting have been located and forensically examined.
- NZPA
