‘This is a horror story’
Rising body count in Tauranga ‘unrelated’ to gang tit-for-tat
The mystery surrounding last week's Tauranga double homicide intensified yesterday after a victim's brother claimed he “was in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Police also declared the deaths “unrelated to gang conflict” — as the body of a woman was found at a suburban property.
Two men were shot dead in McLaren Falls on Tuesday, and after the woman was found dead in a property in the Tauranga suburb of Brookfield yesterday police linked the “domestic incident” death to the McLaren Falls deaths.
He was a good guy . . . in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They said they believe she had been dead in the Lynwood Place home for days.
Family hugged and congregated on the front lawn of the property, and neighbours said they had heard no noises from the house. The residents of the home had only recently moved in, neighbours said.
Four people are now dead — including two men aged 43 and 32 who were shot and killed in a McLaren Falls property last week. Some of those involved were gang members, according to police.
A 25-year-old Bay of Plenty man yesterday appeared before court in Christchurch charged with double murder. Name suppression was given to him and the victims.
Another suspect in the McLaren Falls homicides was gunned down by police in a wild car chase shootout in the affluent suburb of Bethlehem on Thursday night.
The brother of one of the McLaren Falls homicide victims
spoke to the Herald yesterday, describing his sibling as a “good guy”.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the moment we’re just trying to get my brother back, get our boy back and do the right thing by him. So we’re concentrating on him and not what we want to say and don’t want to say.”
The man said he thinks the residents of Tauranga were shocked by the deaths.
“Tauranga’s pretty solemn out there today,” he said.
Numerous comments on social media lamented the escalating violence in the city. A resident wrote: “Oh my god this is a horror story . . . what’s happened to beautiful Tauranga?”
Police yesterday seemed to confirm the McLaren Falls homicides were not a direct result of the tit-fortat gun violence in Tauranga that has plagued the city over the past year with the incursion of Australian gangs.
“Based on information available, the [homicides] appear to be unrelated to gang conflict although police are aware the incidents have involved gang members,” District Commander Andy McGregor said.
It is understood the 43-year-old victim had become a grandfather only days before his death.
It is also understood a 9-year-old boy who fled the scene of the McLaren Falls incident was the son of the girlfriend of one of the two victims.
The other McLaren Falls victim’s sister asked on social media on Friday for family and friends to post photos of her brother to remember him and “how loved he was”.
One of those photos shows the victim wearing a Head Hunters
T-shirt.
Yesterday, the sister updated the post: “We finally have our boy home!! Thank you for all the messages.”
Police have been highly visible across Tauranga in recent days, and there were several reports yesterday from the public of police carrying guns. Police however said officers across the city are not generally being armed.
Tauranga’s pretty solemn out there today.