{"id":268674,"date":"2026-02-05T08:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/268674\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T08:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:38:10","slug":"gang-member-hone-neal-who-was-shot-by-police-appears-in-court-with-co-accused-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/268674\/","title":{"rendered":"Gang member Hone Neal, who was shot by police, appears in court with co-accused"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published on \"NZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Hone<\/p>\n

\nHone Haunui Neal (above) and Hope Waimata Waitere appeared briefly in the Hamilton District Court today.
\nPhoto: Open Justice \/ NZME\n<\/p>\n

A 40-year-old gang member who was shot by police in a Hamilton carpark after an armed standoff<\/a> has made a brief appearance in court.<\/p>\n

Hone Haunui Neal was taken to Waikato Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after allegedly presenting a gun at officers on Ulster St just before 9am yesterday.<\/p>\n

Neal and his co-accused, Hope Waimata Waitere, both appeared in the Hamilton District Court this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Neal and Waitere, 29, face charges of kidnapping, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and aggravated burglary.<\/p>\n

Neal, who was wearing an orange tracksuit today and didn’t appear to have any visible injuries, faces an additional charge of using a firearm against law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Through his counsel, Gerard Walsh, he entered not guilty pleas to all charges.<\/p>\n

Neal didn’t seek bail and was remanded in custody by Community Magistrate Ngaire Mascelle to reappear in court in April for a case review hearing.<\/p>\n

Waitere was remanded in custody without plea to reappear next week for a bail hearing.<\/p>\n

\"Ulster<\/p>\n

\nNeal was taken to hospital after a standoff with police.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n

‘Aggravated burglary of Hamilton home’<\/p>\n

The pair’s charges are understood to stem from an aggravated burglary at a Hamilton home during the early hours of 29 January.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Neal, Waitere, and several others allegedly entered the home, the occupants also got home.<\/p>\n

It’s alleged the occupants were assaulted and had possessions taken from them before the group left.<\/p>\n

They then went to a second property to meet another person, who was also allegedly attacked.<\/p>\n

The firearm charge stemmed from Wednesday, when Neal was allegedly spotted by police in his Subaru at the Ulster St superette.<\/p>\n

Neal is alleged to have bought some items from the store and got back into his car before a police patrol car blocked it in.<\/p>\n

He allegedly reversed his car as two police officers approached and saw Neal pointing a firearm at them.<\/p>\n

They retreated, and at some point officers fired a shot.<\/p>\n

Neal is understood to have suffered a minor injury to his nose.<\/p>\n

Soon after, both Neal and Waitere were arrested.<\/p>\n

‘Referred to the IPCA’<\/p>\n

Acting Waikato district commander Inspector Will Loughrin said he was proud of how his officers handled the situation.<\/p>\n

Loughrin earlier confirmed a critical investigation had begun, with the shooting also to be referred to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), as was standard procedure.<\/p>\n

A nearby resident also heard gunfire, and police told him to stay home, while others could be seen being escorted by police to their houses.<\/p>\n

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First published on Hone Haunui Neal (above) and Hope Waimata Waitere appeared briefly in the Hamilton District Court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-268674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268674","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=268674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}