Possible gang links to shootings

It was about 7am and Nick Berkland was standing in his kitchen when a car pulled up outside and started shooting his house.

‘‘I was making me a coffee when a bullet came through the kitchen, just above my head. I could hear the banging, and I was like, ‘what the f... was that? F... is that a bullet hole?’’’

Berkland, who lives alone in a quiet street in the Linden area of the Wellington suburb of Tawa, said he pulled back the curtain and saw a white station wagon outside. ‘‘I ran upstairs and got the baseball bat. Don’t know what I was going to do with it, though. But when I came outside they’d just driven off.’’

While bullet holes damaged his home and destroyed the window of a friend’s truck, Berkland was unharmed and appeared unshaken when he spoke to Stuff at noon.

It was one of two shootings in Wellington yesterday. Two people were critically injured in an earlier shooting in Dixon St in the party district at 5am. Both were in intensive care at Wellington Hospital.

Two people were arrested shortly after and five people in a vehicle were arrested and a firearm found in Paremata about 7.30am.

It’s understood police believe both shootings are connected to tensions between rival gangs the Mongrel Mob and King Cobras.

Patched Mongrel Mob members were at the Tawa scene and one confirmed they owned the truck on the berm. Asked if he wanted to make a comment, he said: ‘‘Yeah, can you get me a new window?’’

Berkland confirmed he had gang affiliations, but said he had no idea why he had been targeted.

Meanwhile, armed police patrolled a city-centre cordon as a scene investigation was carried out yesterday. It stretched around the corner of Taranaki St, from Les Mills, to the Calendar Girls nightclub. A small area on Dixon St was also cordoned off and bloody footprints were being photographed.

Anyone with information is asked to phone police on 105, quoting file number P050338863. Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.