Senior Tribesmen member critically hurt in Auckland shooting

The Herald understands a senior member of the Tribesman gang has been shot. Photo / File

A senior member of the Tribesmen motorcycle gang has been shot in Auckland this evening and taken to hospital, the Herald understands.

Sources have confirmed to the Herald that the gang member was shot in Ōtara and was taken to Middlemore Hospital.

A spokesman for the police said they are investigating after a man presented at Middlemore Hospital with critical injuries this evening.

Police were called at about 6.50pm, he said, and the man is currently being treated. The spokesman could not comment further

Although it’s too soon to say who is behind the targeted attack, there are fears the shooting could reignite the tensions between the Tribesmen and Killer Beez.

The rival gangs were involved in a tit-for-tat war earlier this year until a truce was called to halt the string of drive-by shootings and suspicious fires.

After several years of relative peace between the two once-aligned gangs, tensions flared when the Tribesmen held a patching ceremony for new members in Papatoetoe in March.

On the evening of the patching ceremony, Killer Beez fired at the address where the Tribesmen were celebrating.

While no one was hurt, this show of aggression set the scene for what followed.

So when some Killer Beez fell off their motorcycles on the Southern Motorway during the gang’s conference in April, a video clip of the embarrassing crash was shared widely on social media by mocking Tribesmen.

The online humiliation inflamed the rivalry to the point where a senior member of the Killer Beez turned up at a rugby league practice with a firearm to threaten a senior Tribesmen member.

The confrontation never took place. But the aggressive move was the catalyst for the five drive-by shootings over one weekend in late May.

A police crackdown, called Operation Dairylands, led to firearms being seized and members of both gangs being arrested, although the violence continued.

This continued to spiral over the next three weeks until a truce was called in mid-June