Otara Drive-by shooting: Two remain in hospital

A cousin of one of the men shot last night in Otara says the panicked three victims had run to one of their homes on Preston Rd.

They were shaken, scared and panicking. One had wounds from shotgun pellets sprayed across his cheek and neck, another had an injury to the arm and the other one had a wounded finger.

The man, who was on his way to visit the men in hospital this morning, said the occupants of the vehicle that did the shooting were not known to them.

"They were just walking down the road. Some car pulled up and started shooting.

"They were in shock... everyone is too scared to come back to the house now."

"[The cheek wound] looks deep, it looks sore."

Two men remain in hospital after the shooting in South Auckland last night.

Three men, including a 14-year-old, were taken to Middlemore Hospital after a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Kudu Rd and Preston Rd in Otara about 7pm last night.

One of the three men shot at has been discharged from hospital and the other two remain in a stable condition, a Counties Manukau District Health Board spokeswoman said. The three victims were aged between 14 and 21.

Detective Senior Sergeant Eddie Sutherland said three men were walking on Kudu Rd when a car pulled up next to them.

A confrontation occurred between the two groups and someone in the vehicle fired two shots, believed to be from a shotgun, at the three men.

All three were injured by the two shots and were taken to hospital, Sutherland said.

No arrests had yet been made, a police spokesman said this morning. Sutherland last night said he wanted to reassure the local community police were taking this incident very seriously and were making a number of enquiries to locate the offenders.

Neighbours told the Herald they heard two gunshots.

A teenager said she saw everything out the window of her house.

She told the Herald she saw two or three boys walking along the road when a car with four boys in it came up Kudu Rd. She said two of the boys jumped out of the car and starting shooting at the others.

It looked like one of the boys was hit, she said. The boys ran away and the car drove off down Preston Rd in the opposite direction, she said.

A Preston Rd resident said he didn't realise what had happened until the police turned up.

"I heard two bangs. At first I thought it didn't matter, that it was just someone banging on corrugated iron. It wasn't until the cops turned up that I realised."

Residents 200-300m down the road from where it took place told the Herald the bangs were so loud they sounded like they were right outside their homes.​

Police last night cordoned off the area as they went door-to-door interviewing residents and examined the crime scene.