West Auckland man stabbed attacked by gang affiliates, family member says

Family members are praying for a man to recover after he was stabbed outside his home in what a relative says was a cowardly night attack.

A relative said the 26-year-old staggered home, unaware that he had been stabbed when he stepped in to help a friend attacked late at night in West Auckland.

The relative said both men were returning home from a party after midnight Saturday when a group of four gang members followed them and “jumped” on the friend.

“They were kicking him on the ground. His tooth fell out. They were stomping on him.”

He said that when his relative fought back, a member of the larger group stabbed him near his lung.

“They are cowards. They couldn’t beat him.”

After the man was stabbed on Kervil Ave on the Te Atatū Peninsula, he went home before realizing the extent of his injuries.

“He didn’t even know, because he was fighting one of them.”

Blood was still present on the front door of the house and across the carpet on Saturday afternoon.

This was where the wounded man entered before noticing a wound a few inches deep, the relative said.

“He said ‘I was stabbed’. Fortunately we reacted quickly.”

Emergency services were called around 1.15am. The man was hospitalized with serious injuries.

The relative said that high-level gang members must impose discipline among their members and associates, to calm tensions in the neighborhood and set a better example.

“Gang members are supposed to be tough men, and do they have to bring a gun? Now the little ones go to other people’s houses?”

He said the attack was dishonorable.

“We are civilians. We are not in any gang. The way you are pressuring us, we will have to join a gang to protect our family.”

But reconciliation was still possible, the relative said.

“I’m open to talking, not with the boys, but with their upper limbs.”

The relative said that the 26-year-old did not want to “give away” or go into details about what happened.

He said that some people at the party had attended a kickboxing tournament before, which went off without incident.

But the relative understood that a resentment or incident from about two years ago was brought up at an after party.

He believed that most of the people involved were drunk at one in the morning.

The 26-year-old was at Auckland City Hospital on Saturday afternoon awaiting a second surgery, the relative said.

“I don’t know what would happen if I died.”

The family member understood that the second surgery would involve making sure the young man’s internal organs were fine.

He said it was hard to know how to feel, but family members were angry and traumatized.

“You never think it will happen to you.”

“I am grateful to God that I survived. I hope that with the surgery he continues to survive.”

The family member said a cordon was lifted on Kervil Ave and that police left around 1.45 p.m. Saturday.

Police said later Saturday afternoon that investigations were continuing.

Anyone with information can call the police at 105 and quote file number 201114/2814.