Viaduct hotel shooting: Gang member pleads guilty to firing gun at Sofitel

Hone Reihana pleaded guilty to firing a firearm at Auckland’s Sofitel hotel last year.
Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers

A patched up headhunter gang member who considered himself ‘New Zealand’s most wanted man’ pleaded guilty after he opened fire at check-out time in the lobby of a five-star hotel in Auckland. rice field.

Hone Hekenui Hawira, also known as Hone Reihana, kissed children in the corridors of Auckland’s High Court today.

He pleaded guilty to firing a firearm with intent to inflict serious injuries at the Sofitel Hotel in Auckland’s waterfront viaduct area last April.

The high-profile shooting came after weeks of back-and-forth exchanges between Hawira’s headhunter motorcycle gang and rival Mongolian gangs, according to court documents. It also included a car that was set on fire and other shootings.

No one was injured in the 9 a.m. Sofitel shooting, but it ignited a citywide police response of armed officers and Eagle helicopters.

The Mongolian members were already staying at the hotel when Hawira showed up around 12:30 am.

He left an hour later and stayed at another hotel, but returned to the Sofitel at 7:48 a.m., officials say.

The Mongolian member checked out around 9am and was talking to a hotel employee waiting for his car to be removed from the valet parking lot. Hawira then walked through her foyer area and pulled out a pistol from his bag over the shoulder.

He fired two shots, police claim, which were later found on the wall just behind where the complainant was sitting.

After his arrest, Hawira refused to speak to police, but said he was New Zealand’s most wanted man, the documents said.

At a brief hearing today, Justice Simon Moore set a provisional sentencing date later this month.

Others allegedly involved in the shooting are due to go on trial next week.

*This story was originally NZ Herald.