A witness to a shooting at an Auckland family home last night says it's a scary development on his normally quiet street.
Police said it was a very serious case of mistaken identity, and they suspect gang members targeted the wrong address.
Māngere local resident Tino said he heard the shooting of 20 bullets ringing through Yates Road at 11.30pm yesterday.
"When I heard it, I thought it was a firework," Tino said.
"I told my wife, maybe a firework. Bang, bang, bang. Then maybe five [seconds later]... bang, bang, bang. Yeah, I was scared."
Police investigating at Yates Road, Māngere, where there was a shooting on 3 November. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
He said he had never heard a gunshot in the 20 years he has lived there, and with Guy Fawke's approaching, he thought they were fireworks.
Police Inspector Matt Srhoj said the family, including children, were lucky to escape physically unharmed.
"We're really lucky that we're not dealing with a homicide on this occasion. We believe it is a case of mistaken identity, this is a young family with a number of kids."
Police investigating at Yates Road, Māngere, where there was a shooting on 3 November. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Srhoj would not say which gang or gangs they suspect were responsible.
"The likely scenario is that it's local people that are responsible for this, doing this to their own community," he said.
"A lot of the information we need will be sitting with other members of the community as well, and we really encourage them to come forward and tell us what they know so we can put a stop to this."
The National Party said this showed it was high time for a strong crackdown on gangs and guns.
National Party police spokesperson Simeon Brown said he had been warning that this amount of gang warfare and guns being used would eventually involve innocent people.
"The government announced back in May that they were going to bring forward Firearm Prohibition Order legislation," Brown said.
"It still hasn't come to Parliament. I'm not sure what timeframe they're working to, but the reality is this shooting of an innocent family by gang members shows the urgent need to take action and to take guns off the gangs."
Police investigating at Yates Road, Māngere, where there was a shooting on 3 November. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The government has proposed anyone who commits a serious offence with firearms or violence, or who is part of an organised crime group, be issued a Firearm Prohibition Order.
This would prohibit those with an order against them from owning, using or being in the vicinity of a gun.
The proposal is that they would not be able to associate with anyone who has a gun on them.
Included in Brown's proposal is warrantless search powers for police against any person who has an order against them.
"That's what the Police Association has made clear - that Firearm Prohibition Orders are good, but they also need to have additional search powers for police so that they can enforce them, and ensure those gang members that have these against their name are held to account."
Police Minister Poto Williams said that the Bill would be introduced into the House before the end of the year.
"Existing search powers would apply, and police would need to have reasonable cause for any search without a warrant.
"This government's FPOs [Firearm Prohibition Orders] regime will strengthen the actions we are taking to combat the influence of gangs and organised crime, and help keep our communities safe."
Police launched Operation Tauwhiro in February this year to stop gun violence by gangs and other organised crime groups.
It has netted about 1000 guns, 865 arrests and seized nearly $5 million in cash.
They said it was suppressing gang tensions and has had a significant impact.
