Auckland man pulled from car and beaten to death

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 8

Auckland man pulled from car and beaten to death

PA Auckland The neighbours of West Auckland farmer David Gray, aged 56, were last evening still trying to come to terms with his brutal death. Mr Gray, the father of five, died in Auckland Hospital yesterday morning after being savagely beaten in a Massey street. The police said repeated bashings with a bar had left him with head and chest injuries. Mr Gray was found in a

pool of blood beside the utility vehicle from which he had been hauled by his attackers about 3.45 a.m. A police spokesman said that minutes earlier he had been involved in a minor accident with a car. After a chase his vehicle was in a second collision. , The police said he was dragged on to the road by the two occupants of the car and bludgeoned with the bar. His assailants smashed the windows of the utility.

Mr Gray had been driving home from his night shift job at the Caxton Printing Works. r Two long-time neighbours described Mr Gray as an unassuming, softlyspoken man. Mr Norman Pett, who s lives alongside Mr Gray’s Taupaki farm, said, “He was a very inoffensive sort of bloke, and I am not just saying that because he has died. “He would be the last person in the world to get

in a fight The nature of the man was to walk away from a scrap, father than become Involved.” Mr John Rosamond, an orchardist opposite the Gray property, said, “It has been a real shock. He was not the type of person to bother anybody.” Mr Gray worked at Caxton to supplement his income from farming pigs and a few head of cattle. Late last evening no arrests had been made in connection with his death.