Man charged over Levin gunshots

A 33-year-old man is facing firearms charges, and police are looking for two vehicles after gunshots broke the lockdown silence in Levin.

Two gunshots rang out on Salisbury St just before 9pm on Saturday.

Detective Sergeant Shelley Ross confirmed police had responded to a firearms incident that night, and the armed offenders squad was called in.

Yesterday, police examined the house where the firearm was allegedly fired, and were attempting to identify two vehicles being driven suspiciously in the area around the time the gunshots were heard.

Shelley said nobody was injured in the incident, but a 33-year-old man will appear in the Palmerston North District Court today facing firearms charges.

A Salisbury St resident said the first sign of trouble was screaming and yelling coming from the house on Saturday morning.

‘‘Then I heard someone yell ‘he’s got a gun, he’s got a gun’,’’ she said.

‘‘But when I was calling the police, I heard people laughing so I thought it was a joke.’’

She thought nothing more about it, until 8.50pm, when she heard two loud booms.

‘‘I thought it was a car backfiring, that it couldn’t be gun shots.

‘‘I didn’t ring in [about the house] again, because I didn’t want to keep calling the police on them.

‘‘[Later,] there were police cars and vans coming and going down the street until 2am.’’

Yesterday, she saw armed police guarding the house, and started asking around about what had happened.

But nobody really knew anything, and the police wouldn’t say anything about it, she said.