The man shot dead outside a South Auckland church yesterday morning has been named as David Eliu.
Eliu was a Mongrel Mob member who was attending a graduation ceremony for a programme run by the Grace Foundation. The programme is designed for people to better themselves. Eliu was not graduating himself, but had been on the programme for about six months. Guests were waiting outside for a Christmas meal to be served when the incident happened.
Grace Foundation leader David Letele Snr described his shock to legacy media outlet NZHerald:
‘We weren’t too sure what had actually happened, just heard the sounds. It didn’t quite sound like a firearm, it sounded quite quiet.
‘We just noticed the victim sort of stumbling and then a guy running away from the area. Then we realised that something had happened to him so we quickly laid him down and ascertained what it was that had happened, then we realised that he’d been shot.’
