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."