South Aucklanders are demanding answers after another case of gun violence in their district - and a local councillor says gangs are the cause.
In the latest incident, a man was left in a critical condition after a shooting at a south Auckland bar on Saturday morning.
It's the eighth incidence of gun violence in the region since March.
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- Clover Park shooting: Fears of tit-for-tat violence
- Witness living in fear after Otara shooting
It was at Manukau's Republic Bar that a busy Friday night came to a violent end.
Officers were called to the bar at around 1:40am on Saturday and found the man already wounded, apparently shot.
He was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a critical condition - and the local community remains in shock.
"It makes me wanna leave the area…. it's really not good," one person told Newshub.
"You hear about it overseas - but to hear about it in your own backyard… it's a bit of an eye-opener," another said.
But some other locals weren't surprised at the violence.
"Car groups, biker groups, they always fill up the carpark," one person told Newshub.
In the aftermath of the incident, a large group of people gathered outside the bar. Many of them were described as "drunk and rowdy" - and one was so aggressive they even assaulted one of Newshub's cameramen. He was taken to hospital with a suspected fractured rib.
Eight incidents of gun violence have now occurred across a four-kilometre radius around south Auckland in just five months.
Three of them were in Otara, two in Clover Park, one in Mangere, this morning's shooting in Manukau and one just north in Mt Wellington.
Manukau Ward Councillor Efeso Collins says this isn't the south Auckland he knows and believes gang-related issues are to blame.
"I think the community has reached a point of exasperation now," he says. "We ran a community hui just a few weeks ago where we had every politician and their dog come along and I think that's turned into just a talkfest."
And to avoid that, Collins says we need to focus on drivers like poverty.
"When young people have got nothing else to turn to [they will turn to] the gangs because they'll find structure in those gangs, camaraderie in those gangs and they'll find some food in those gangs," he says.
Today's shooting victim is in a serious but stable condition. Police say so far no arrests have been made.
Newshub.
