Gang ‘baby-bashers’

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 6

Gang ‘baby-bashers’

PA Hamilton Young children were thrown behind furniture as shotgun blasts ripped into a Hamilton house on Tuesday evening, showering the occupants with ■ broken glass. 1 ’ y-A woman was also struck i on the head by a bottle hurled through a window ’during the attack, which occurred just before 8.30 p.m. y ; . ; ? The house is;. an occasional meeting place of the Black Power gang, but , three women — and seven children all jiged under two — were home. ; The police believe a rival gang was responsible for the attack. ' The residents of the ‘- home declined to talk yes-

terday but later the Black Power president, Tyrone Maihi, agreed to be interviewed. ’ “It was a cowardly attack,” he said. Every window in the front of the house was smashed and shotgun pellets are embedded in the outside walls. The windows of a car parked on the lawn were smashed in during the attack. The women in the house hid children behind furniture and rushed to neighbours to'raise the alarm as the first of three shots hit the house. $ “This is just? baby bashing,” Mr Maihi said. He believed the rival gang knew that none of his members were at the home when they attacked. The gang members de-

dined to say if the incident would draw reprisals. The. Hamilton armed offenders squad was at the house within minutes of the shots, but the offenders had left the area. A search of neighbouring streets failed to turn up any sign of them. A team of seven detectives was following definite leads yesterday, said Detective Inspector P. Ward. “We are ’coking for one or maybe two persons;” he said. Both were believed to be local gang members. Mr Ward said the inci-, dent arose out of a gang situation that brought inevitable confrontations. . The situation went back several days, but came to a head on Tuesday evening.