KEY POINTS:
Two men have been charged with unlawful assembly by police investigating the drive-by shooting of a toddler in Wanganui.
The two-year-old girl, known only as Jhia, was shot and killed just before 10pm on Saturday as she slept on the sofa in a house in the suburb of Gonville.
A team of 35 police are looking for her killer and today arrested two Wanganui men, aged 18 and 31, for unlawful assembly relating to earlier incidents leading up to the shooting death.
The men are to appear in Wanganui District Court at 10am tomorrow and police said more people were still being sought.
The post mortem examination on the body of the little girl has been finished in Wellington and she was tonight returned to her family.
Police said the tangi was to be held in Levin on Thursday.
Meanwhile, police say the scene examination at the Puriri St house will continue tomorrow, with the main focus today on trying to establish the trajectory of the shots fired at the house.
About a dozen people were at the home, believed to be rented by a Black Power gang member, on Saturday night when several vehicles drove past and fired shots into the front of the house.
Tensions with the rival Mongrel Mob gang have been blamed for the incident.
Police have spoken to a number of people in the area and will tomorrow extend the area they are canvassing in a bid to find more information.
- NZPA
