Wellington Hospital shooting linked to double-fatal crash near Ōtaki

A brazen shooting near Wellington Hospital last week has been linked to a double-fatal crash caused by a teenage driver who fled police in a stolen car.

The shooting, which involved rival gang members, erupted on Wednesday, May 1, after a man was allegedly threatened with a machete outside a motel on Riddiford St, opposite the main entrance to the central city hospital.

At the time, a teenager who was critically injured in the fatal crash near Ōtaki on April 26 – Tama Whakarau – was on life support in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

He has since died. The 16-year-old driver of the car he was a passenger in, Reihana Hawea, was also fatally injured in the crash.

According to court documents, Black Power member Shoshonee Pullan-Whakarau, 22, was staying at the Riddiford St motel while a relative of his, understood to be Whakarau, was a patient at Wellington Hospital.

Shortly after 5pm, Pullan-Whakarau and some of his associates were involved in an altercation with a Mongrel Mob member who was visiting a family staying at the motel, and another person, both of whom were armed with knives, the documents say.

The Mongrel Mob member and his associate then left the motel in a ute, and parked near the hospital’s front entrance.

According to the documents, Pullan-Whakarau retrieved a shotgun from his motel room and, together with his associates, drove to the hospital in a car.

After yelling and shouting at the Mongrel Mob member, Pullan-Whakarau walked to within about 5 metres of the ute, holding the shotgun.

“Despite another family member coming along and attempting to stop him, the defendant fired one shot into the driver’s door of the vehicle,” the documents say.

No-one in the ute was injured, but the door was “punctured” by shotgun pellets.

Those involved in the incident fled the scene in the two vehicles, and the hospital was forced into lockdown.

Pullan-Whakarau was eventually arrested in Hāwera, Taranaki.

Yesterday, in the New Plymouth District Court, he pleaded guilty to a charge of discharging a firearm to intimidate.

Two other men were also arrested following the incident. A 40-year-old man was charged with threatening someone with a machete, while a 21-year-old man was charged with possessing an offensive weapon.

The double-fatal crash near Ōtaki happened after a stolen ute driven by Hawea fled police, drove the wrong way down SH1 and collided head-on with another vehicle about 11.05pm on April 26.

The stolen ute was wanted in connection with a robbery in Ōtaki earlier in the evening, and failed to stop when signalled to by officers just south of Levin.

Hawea died at the scene. Whakarau was one of two passengers in the stolen ute when it crashed. The four people in the other vehicle suffered moderate-serious injuries.