{"id":32729,"date":"2025-09-20T05:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/32729\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T05:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:27:07","slug":"mongrel-mob-member-pulled-loaded-shotgun-from-under-sleeping-children-fired-it-through-morrinsville-shed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/32729\/","title":{"rendered":"Mongrel Mob member pulled loaded shotgun from under sleeping children, fired it through Morrinsville shed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neighbours called police<\/a>, and the Armed Offenders Squad soon arrived to arrest him.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe hole visible on the outside of the shed after Tiaki James Wahanga O Te Rangi Riki, 29, fired his sawn-off shotgun through the wall from inside. <\/p>\n

During a search of his house, they found nine live rounds of shotgun ammunition, the shotgun, 33 empty shotgun shells, cannabis bongs, 54 grams of cannabis, a packet of self-sealing bags for cannabis distribution, two rifle bolts and a rifle scope.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just fired a shot into the air. I wasn\u2019t hurting anybody,\u201d the 29-year-old said when interviewed later by police. <\/p>\n

Risk was \u2018high and absolutely inexcusable\u2019<\/p>\n

At Wahanga O Te Rangi Riki\u2019s sentencing, Judge Kim Saunders said an aggravating factor was that he had been drinking and taking drugs when he fired the shotgun, as well as it being loaded and underneath a mattress on which the children were sleeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt beggars belief that you thought it was a good idea to have it there in the first place, let alone to discharge it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk that you posed to their safety, let alone anybody else in the house, was high and absolutely inexcusable.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe sawn-off shotgun Tiaki James Wahanga O Te Rangi Riki had stashed under a mattress. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of all this, you are said to be a gang member.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge noted an alcohol and drug report and found there was a causal link between his substance abuse and the offending.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnsurprisingly, you reported that you were in the midst of an extensive drug binge involving alcohol, cannabis, meth, and other substances.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have used alcohol and drugs as a form of self-medication since you were 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also the intergenerational entrenchment of the Mongrel Mob and the gang culture and all that brings with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Saunders noted Wahanga O Te Rangi Riki\u2019s criminal history, which included a conviction for aggravated robbery in 2017.<\/p>\n

She took an overall starting point of three years\u2019 imprisonment, noting the high risk to the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all very well after the event to acknowledge that, but it could have been way too late for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After applying discounts, she jailed Wahanga O Te Rangi Riki for 23 months.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neighbours called police, and the Armed Offenders Squad soon arrived to arrest him. The hole visible on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[31047,1061,31046,26663,71,1328,42,702,22176,31048,1329,4281,4280,31045,43,26525,20927,26639,20928,27250,1529,210,40,38,41,39,8238,13558,3608,5977,4741],"class_list":["post-32729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-beneath","tag-children","tag-drunk","tag-fired","tag-from","tag-gang","tag-headlines","tag-it","tag-loaded","tag-mattress","tag-member","tag-mob","tag-mongrel","tag-morrinsville","tag-news","tag-pulled","tag-sawnoff","tag-shed","tag-shotgun","tag-sleeping","tag-three","tag-through","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-under","tag-wall","tag-were","tag-which","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32729","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=32729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}