{"id":159868,"date":"2025-11-29T15:59:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/159868\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T15:59:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:59:21","slug":"mother-launches-erus-law-petition-after-sons-shooting-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/159868\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother launches \u2018Eru\u2019s Law\u2019 petition after son\u2019s shooting death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EruEru Oakes was killed on October 25, 2025. A petition calling for change has been labelled Eru’s Law.<\/p>\n

\u2018The day my life changed forever\u2019<\/p>\n

Sonya\u2019s life changed forever on 25 October, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son Eru was taken from us in a violent incident that no mother should ever have to face\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe passed away the next day – it was from that moment, my world shattered\u201d Sonya told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\" Eru Oakes and his four brothers. He died last month. His mum has started a petition labelled Eru’s Law.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy four other sons were traumatised by what they saw and what they endured that day. As their mother, I had to somehow hold their grief as well as my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus is protecting my sons, honouring Eru,29, and surviving this heartbreak as a family.<\/p>\n

Three men – Joseph Yorke, Kanan Clarke and Te Waiari Kapereira Mana Watson – were charged with Eru\u2019s murder<\/a> and appeared in the Tauranga High Court a fortnight ago, entering not guilty pleas.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the family is left to come to grips with its pain.<\/p>\n

\u2018It exists to honour my son\u2019<\/p>\n

The Facebook page is somewhere Sonya can place her pain, she told the Herald. \u201cI needed somewhere to speak for my boy. Somewhere my son\u2019s name can be held safely and respectfully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt exists to honour my son, support my four surviving boys through their trauma, and connect with families who understand this grief.<\/p>\n

\" Tristan Eru Oakes, 29, (left) from Te Puke and his twin brother Wharehuia. Photo \/ Sonya Oakes.<\/p>\n

Sonya said once she started talking and writing about her experiences and grief, more people, started reaching out. \u201cI realised my story wasn\u2019t isolated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many offenders walk away with sentences that don\u2019t reflect the harm caused. My grief became my drive. My pain became my determination.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sons became my reasons to keep going. I have five boys, one now in the sky, four who still need a future that is safer than what took their brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eru'sEru’s hunting dogs and wh\u0101nau are loaded onto his truck as they make their way to the urupa.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne message that struck me deeply came from a wh\u0101nau who also lost a loved one to violence. They shared: \u2018Everything you are moving with Eru\u2019s Law is long overdue. With our wh\u0101nau, we stand with you in changing this system for the better\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessages like this remind me this kaupapa is bigger than my wh\u0101nau. This is not just my son\u2019s story, it\u2019s a story of every family failed by the gaps in our justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do this for every parent who has buried a child – for every victim whose story got lost in the system.<\/p>\n

\"MumMum Sonya Oakes is determined to seek real justice and accountability for her son Eru’s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son\u2019s life mattered. His legacy will be change and I will keep going until the justice system reflects the value of the lives taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 3000 have signed the petition, which is available on Parliament\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Joseph Los\u2019e is the Kaupapa M\u0101ori Editor and joined NZME in 2022. Los\u2019e was chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and before joining NZME worked for urban M\u0101ori organisation Wh\u0101nau Waipareira.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eru Oakes was killed on October 25, 2025. A petition calling for change has been labelled Eru’s Law.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,24752,634,84400,1342,3011,3375,1739,8307,424,6178,111,43,139,69,76862,128,43044,7819,10707,55997,4518,1316,17454],"class_list":["post-159868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-ago","tag-death","tag-erus","tag-five","tag-four","tag-killed","tag-launches","tag-law","tag-life","tag-mother","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oakes","tag-petition","tag-shattered","tag-shooting","tag-sons","tag-sonya","tag-weeks","tag-when","tag-whose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}