Five in custody over shootout

Press, 11 October 1988, Page 8

Five in custody over shootout

PA Gisborne Five Wairoa men arrested after Saturday evening’s fatal gang shootout in Wairoa were remanded in custody to December 12 after an appearance in the District Court at Gisborne yesterday.

Three teen-age youths appearing on the same charge of unlawful assembly were granted bail by Judge Ongley. Barlow James Tipuna, aged 23, unemployed, Sonny Manuea Tipuna, 24, a farmhand, Turuki Eru Tipuna, 34, unemployed, Maclntyre Kapuna, 26, a freezing worker, and Roydon Mana Rogers, 23, a labourer, were remanded in custody by Judge Ongley.

He said he had been told that ill-feeling between two gangs in the

town was at a peak after six months of feuding.

If the five were released into the community, there was a possibility of a member of the public being injured and also that the five could commit further offences along the line of the week-end tragedy.

There was still a fear in the minds of Wairoa people that more violence could break out, Judge Ongley said. He said he hoped a point could be reached when the antagonism died down but his over-riding concern was the welfare of the community and the safety of the five charged. The three youths, whose ages on charge sheets were shown as 15, 16 and 17, were released on condition they obeyed a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.