Pubdate: Mon, 13 Aug 2001
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2001 New Zealand Herald
Contact:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300
Author: Jo-Marie Brown and NZPA

SHOOTING LINKED TO DRUG DEALING

An Auckland man shot in the leg while selling cannabis is refusing to tell 
police who pulled the trigger.

Detective Sergeant Neil Grimstone said a 25 year-old man was shot in the 
thigh about 3 am yesterday while selling drugs from a house at Caravelle 
Close, Mangere.

Police believed that a gang member was responsible for the attack but the 
injured man claimed that he did not see who it was.

"I suggest he has every idea who it was but he's not prepared to tell us at 
the moment," Detective Sergeant Grimstone said.

After the incident, the bleeding man had hobbled to a nearby friend's house 
where he phoned his mother and for an ambulance.

Yesterday, police went door to door to check the man's story.

Though he was not a gang member, he had been temporarily living at the 
house and was the only one home at the time of the shooting.

The man was released from Middlemore Hospital yesterday afternoon.

Doctors had decided to leave the .22 calibre bullet in his leg for the 
moment, unless it caused more pain, Detective Sergeant Grimstone said.

"It's the old story that if you play with fire you're gonna get burned," he 
said.

Police also believed that the man was suffering from a psychiatric 
condition and had not been taking his medication.

"We're now just trying to clarify what he has reluctantly told us."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart