Police say the incident took place in Rangitikei Street in Palmerston North. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the victim had been shot in the head. Police have clarified he was shot in the torso.
A man was critically injured after being shot in the torso and sliced by a machete outside a Palmerston North pub on Tuesday night.
Police said they were called to Rangitikei Street in the central city about 11.30pm, and found a person in a critical condition with a gunshot wound, who is now in a stable condition in hospital.
The Armed Offender Squad was later sent to a property in Selwyn Court, also in the central city, where a "vehicle of interest" was seized.
The investigation is ongoing, but police believe they know the two people who were involved in the attack.
Royal Hotel owner Jazz Rawiri told RNZ he was not at the pub at the time, but was called in by security staff and had since reviewed CCTV footage.
The victim - who staff did not know, and was not a regular - had been causing trouble in the gaming room and was asked to leave, he said.
"Out on the street he had words with a couple of other known patrons to the hotel, this soon escalated into a sparring match," he said.
The man was then "sliced" in the head with a machete before being shot, Rawiri said.
Police confirmed a machete was involved in the attack.
Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Thompson said there had been a number of shootings in Palmerston North in the past few weeks, and police were proactively patrolling "areas of high demand".
"While previous incidents are believed to have been linked, last night's assault is not related and is believed to have been a one-off non-gang related incident."
Police said there was no risk to the wider community.
"The fact that someone has escalated this altercation to the use of a firearm is hugely concerning, it could have had a far more serious outcome," Thompson said.
Rawiri said poor behaviour was not out of the ordinary in Palmerston North, and last week he wrote to local MP Tangi Utikere to press the government to tighten laws.
"We have shootings in Palmy, as you probably hear, every week, every week without fail, there's some sort of shooting or police chase or something bad happening and it's normally surrounding gang relationships," he said - though this one was not.
Rawiri said his hotel door had been smashed down with an axe two weeks ago.
Rawiri felt the behaviour was tolerated and punishments were not harsh enough.
"This needs to be fixed at central government level, innocent people are getting hurt now."
The Royal Hotel has installed a metal detector to ensure weapons could not be smuggled into the pub, and has a database of patrons it knows carry weapons, Rawiri said.
In a statement Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere said constituents raised issues with him related to "anti-social and gang-related behaviour" from time to time.
"Dealing with this type of behaviour is an operational matter for Police. As the MP for Palmerston North, I have raised concerns about violent behaviour in Palmerston North with local Police where necessary, and will continue to do so."