Guns, petrol bombs in Hamilton gang fight

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 6

Guns, petrol bombs in Hamilton gang fight

PA Hamilton Shots were fired by rival gangs in Hamilton early yesterday. A man later had shotgun pellets removed from his face. The police suspect the attack was linked with a kidnapping on Thursday evening. The gangs fought with guns and petrol bombs about 5.20 a.m. The attack, on the headquarters of the Outcasts motor-cycle gang, was thought to have been made by the Mongrel Mob.

The wounded man is believed to be from the Outcasts. He was treated at Waikato Hospital. Petrol bombs were hurled at the house and some were thrown back by people inside, the police said. The police seized a truck parked outside. They believe the truck, which is used by the Mongrel Mob, was used to ram gates in the fortified fence round the gang house. The fence was holed from

shotgun blasts. The police yesterday examined possible links between the confrontation and the earlier kidnapping, in which the same truck was used. A young man’s vehicle was taken by a group of youths about 9.45 p.m. on Thursday. The youths drove the owner round Hamilton, assaulted him and took money from him. Yesterday’s gang battle may be a revenge attack by Mongrel Mob members for the killing of the South Auckland mob leader, Darin Minhinnick, almost a month ago. He died at Waikato Hospital on December 15, a day after being hit in the head by a beer bottle thrown from a speeding motorcycle in Frankton, near the Outcasts’ headquarters. He was in a group of Mob members drinking outside a birthday party. Inquiries into the killing were frustrated by the attack not being reported until shortly before his death.

Police seized five motorcycles from gang members for forensic tests. They were returned to their owners this week.

Shortly after the death, wire netting extensions were added to the veranda of the Outcasts headquarters. The police believe the netting was to guard against petrol bombs being thrown over the front fence. Sentries were posted for several evenings. The two gangs have clashed several times in the last three months.

A gang car was peppered with shotgun pellets and a city sauna parlour hit by a .22-calibre bullet in a confrontation in Hamilton on December 11. Nobody was injured, but the incident is still under investigation by the team probing the Minhinnick homicide.

A petrol bomb attack on a home on December 23 may also have been a retaliatory attack on Outcasts gang associates, the police believe.