Robber kills pizza worker

By SCOTT MacLEOD and AINSLEY THOMSON

A Pakuranga pizza shop worker was shot dead last night during an armed robbery.

An armed man entered the Pakuranga Pizza Delivery Company just before 8.30pm and confronted one of the two employees working there.

Police said the gunman shot the employee while trying to rob him and then fled.

Within minutes of the shooting, the Pakuranga Heights shop and nearby roundabout were swarming with 20 police, including detectives and snipers.

Sniffer dogs and the police Eagle helicopter combed the area but did not find the gunman.

The shop is in a mostly residential area.

Sarjit Singh, who lives across the road from the shop, said the first she knew of the shooting was when she looked out her kitchen window to see an ambulance and a police car.

"I went up to see what had happened and asked and I was told a person was shot."

Brian Ramage, who lives within 30m, also heard nothing. He said there was rarely trouble in the area.

The five-year-old business, at the corner of Gossamer Drive and Reeves Rd, is registered to a couple in Lyell Court, Manukau. Their phone rang unanswered last night.

One of South Auckland's most senior officers, Detective Inspector Steve Rutherford, was at the scene.

A police spokeswoman said detectives interviewed the surviving employee late last night.

It was the second pizza service killing in eight months.

Last September, 40-year-old Michael Choy was fatally attacked while delivering pizzas in Papakura.

Nine people, six of them teenagers, were accused of murder and other crimes related to the slaying.

Two weeks ago, a 21-year-old woman pleaded guilty to theft and being an accessory.