Viaduct Hotel shooting trial: Headhunters, Mongols were fighting for days, Crown says | Media Pyro

CCTV footage of a shootout inside the lobby of a luxury Auckland hotel – the culmination of days of “tit-for-tat” violence involving three outlaw motorcycle gangs – was played to jurors today at the start of the trial of the five ringleaders. Hunter members and associates.

Fix-it members Marcus Nielsen, Fred Tanuvasa and another whose name remains suppressed were joined in the High Court in Auckland by potential gang leader Tyran Panapa and gang associate Parair Paikea.

Crown prosecutors admitted in an opening statement that none of the five co-accused pulled the trigger inside the Sofitel hotel on the morning of April 15, 2021, firing two shots in the direction of a rival Mongolian member and a hotel employee — both of whom escaped unhurt.

The confirmed gunman is Head Hunters member Horne Reyhana, who last week pleaded guilty to brandishing a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

But all five current co-defendants should be found guilty of the same crime because they helped Rihanna commit the crime, prosecutors allege.

The shooting inside the five-star Viaduct Hotel drew a large and high-profile police response. A Silverdale motorbike repair business frequented by head hunters changed ownership and defected to closely related Mongols and Comancheros, and tensions between the gangs had been high for weeks, authorities said.

On April 6, the business collapsed after a Mongolian associate’s vehicle was set on fire outside the building.

The next day, Brown’s Bay Gymnasium, run by Head Hunters, was shot in retaliation. On April 9, 21 shots were fired at a business believed to be affiliated with the Mongols, and an argument later broke out outside a Murrays Bay home where the Mongols and members of the Comancheros lived. That night too, shots were fired outside the same house.

Two days later, the Head Hunters’ headquarters in Wellington were sprayed with around 30 bullets.

“These incidents of gun violence play an important role in this trial,” Crown prosecutor Sam Teppet told jurors, while emphasizing that none of the defendants had been charged in any of the previous incidents.

Jaymon Swann, a former headhunters member who defected to Mongolia, began a four-day stay at the Sofitel a day after the Mount Wellington shooting.

“Sofitel employees and patrons of the hotel were going about their regular business as Swan was checking out at 9 a.m. on a typical Thursday morning,” Teppett said, adding that the gang matches were replayed in a very public way.

“Three gang members walk into a five-star hotel and what happened next is no joke,” he said.

“They were there to do a job … to use violence against a rival gang member.”

The gunman, Reyhana, opened fire when two co-accused were walking by his side and two other co-accused were waiting in a vehicle outside the hotel.

Prosecutors said he left in a waiting vehicle after the shooting. With no room in the waiting ute for co-defendant Panappa and the man who suppressed the name, the men instead bought new clothes at a nearby Lacoste and changed into them before taking a bus from Auckland’s city centre, authorities said.

During brief defense statements, attorneys for most of the co-defendants conceded that they were either inside or outside the hotel when the shooting occurred. The exception is Tanuwasa who allegedly did not show up despite booking a hotel room.

They also acknowledged the gang affiliations of their clients.

“You shouldn’t think that Panappa is guilty because he was there, or because he had anything to do with a gang,” lawyer Simon Lance told jurors.

“Was there really any common intention or plan? Did he know that Mr. Rihanna was going to fire the gun with that specific intent? The answer to those questions is no.

“Maybe Mr. Rihanna just did his own thing in the spur of the moment.”

Lawyers for the other men echoed Lance’s sentiments, stressing that there was no evidence of a premeditated plan rather than an “impulsive and opportunistic” act by Rihanna.

“This trial is nothing but police tunnel vision,” Shannon Withers said. “Mr Tanuwasa was not there.

“Is there real evidence? [of a shared plan] Or is this just a guess?