Gang shooting a throwback to bad old days for suburb trying to make good
The gunning down of a leader of the Killer Beez gang has put a less than welcome spotlight on O¯ tara. Phil Taylor found a community that is putting its best foot forward
The Ma¯ori wardens are happy to talk. Talking is a big part of the job. They greet everybody, know everybody, their families and affiliations, and they know this town after dark.
They keep a weather eye, in the pubs, in the town centre, in the parks in the early hours. They even wander up the creeks, just in case. Better safe than sorry.
Tina Harding-McGregor and Fulton Tere are in the colourful town centre on Wednesday evening as retailers pack up. By turns, they are earnest and funny, proud and protective of their patch.
This is not how it normally is, says Tina. She recently changed her surname to honour her grandparents but says everyone knows her as Tina.
“For us, we just don’t want the public thinking that O¯ tara is bad because, always on the news it’s
‘O¯ tara is a violent place’, and I think to myself, it’s a beautiful island,” Tina says. “Come here on Saturday, you’ll see the flea market, see all the different ethnic groups. Haere mai!”
But, yes, they were worried when news broke that Josh Masters had been shot and severely wounded.
“With the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen, at first we thought there is going to be a big war. Somebody shot the Pres! Then when we found out who [was charged] everybody freaked out because these were close guys, good friends.”
People got angry, says Tere, but that had calmed down.
“If you have a good look at the picture,” says Tina, “it’s just family, that’s all it is.”
Though the older folk are asking, what’s wrong with an old-fashioned punch-up? “If you lost, you walk away and you are still a man.”
The Tribesmen emerged out of an older gang called the Stormtroopers, and the Killer Beez were linked to the Tribesmen.
“Brother versus brother,” says Tere, a small man who is wrapped in a large high-vis jacket, “nephew versus nephew”.
These days gangs tended to meet to resolve an issue rather than bash someone, so this was unusual.
Masters, a rapper, kickboxer and the Killer Beez president, was shot while at a Harley Davidson store in Mt Wellington on April 26. Charged with attempted murder is Akustino Tae, who was a friend and founding member of the Killer Beez but who now wears the Tribesmen’s patch.
O¯ tara and neighbouring suburbs are home territory for both gangs, so some tension is to be expected.
The wardens have increased their presence to promote a sense of calm. A meeting is planned for next
Saturday at which Auckland Mayor Phil Goff will speak. It will address worries in the community, says Alf Filipaina, an Auckland City councillor who represents the Manukau ward.
“It won’t be so much about the gangs but on keeping our communities safe.
“People are asking what they should be doing, how to keep safe.”
This is Filipaina’s patch. He was raised in Ma¯ngere East in a family that produced rugby league legend Olsen Filipaina, a player so good he was known simply as “The Big O”.
While Olsen’s path took him from a job on the dust carts to playing league in Australia’s NRL, Alf Filipaina spent 38 years in the police, retiring in 2016. He¯worked as a Pacific liaison officer in Otara and Ma¯ngere and knew Masters years ago when the youth gang was building.
Based on the culture of American street gangs, and intended as a feeder to the Tribesmen, the Killer Beez thrived and continued to do so when Masters was jailed for 10 years for dealing drugs. Masters was released from jail in July.
“It is internal,” said Filipaina. “The difference was the youth group was the feeder to the main group.”
The shame of it for O¯ tara is that the suburb is on its way to shaking a reputation as a dangerous place.
For many outsiders it is known for the Dawn Raids of the 1970s and a gang-related machete murder that happened in the flea market 32 years ago.
“When you get a bad name, it is very hard to wipe that away,” says O¯ tara Business Association manager Rana Judge.