A prominent Dunedin activist and former Green Party candidate seriously injured in a shooting incident has been named.
Former Green Party candidate Jack Brazil. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Gregor Richardson
He is Jack Brazil, an environmental and social justice campaigner who ran in the 2020 election for the Green Party in the Dunedin electorate.
At the time, he ranked number 20 on their list.
Emergency services were called to Yours, a cafe and venue operated by the Ōtepoti Possibilities Co-operative in Moray Place, at 3.05am on Sunday.
Brazil is listed as a shareholder of the co-op.
A person affiliated with the space on Sunday told the Otago Daily Times Brazil drove himself to the space after being shot in the liver, where he called for an ambulance but ended up getting a ride to hospital after flagging down a passing car.
A witness said the armed offenders squad raided the premises about an hour later.
A police spokesperson said Brazil had been seriously injured in the shooting and was in a stable condition on 16 April.
Otago Regional councillor Alan Somerville, who stood on a Green Party ticket, said he hoped Brazil would be okay and his thoughts were with his family and friends.
He did not know anything else about the circumstances of the shooting, other than what had been reported and that Brazil had been involved.
"I just hope he's going to be okay," Somerville said.
While Brazil had run for the Green Party candidacy in the Dunedin electorate in 2020, he had not put himself forward for candidacy for the next election, Somerville said.
Environmental activist and former Green Party leadership challenger James Cockle said hearing about the incident was "absolutely heartbreaking".
"We're all thinking of him and our hearts go out to him," Cockle said.
He was not sure of the nature of the incident, just that Brazil had been taken to hospital.
- This story originally appeared in the Otago Daily Times.