A Black Power representative has lashed out at The AM Show host Duncan Garner, telling him to stop sensationalising gang violence.
Garner had called the gang members behind a fatal shooting in Whanganui on Tuesday morning "gutless wonders" and "brainless scumbags" over the course of Wednesday morning's show.
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It's been reported the 27-year-old man killed was protecting children when he was shot.
Denis O’Reilly said Garner's comments were not helping the situation and would only serve to make things worse.
"Scumbag and lowlife are exactly the types of stupid languages that actually inflame these things so you just mind your own mouth, in the first instance a young man is dead," he said.
"Let's keep ourselves safe, each other's families safe, calm down and you calm down too."
Mr O’Reilly said people needed to keep calm about the incident and let the police do their jobs and bring the shooter to justice.
"Justice will be done through the hands of the police, but trying to fat it up and flame it up like you're doing is not helpful and it's not helpful if anyone else does this either," he said.
Mr O’Reilly is encouraging people to cooperate with the police as they investigate the shooting. He said he doesn't know if the shooters were Black Power members.
He had a reminder for those planning utu (revenge) at the end of the interview.
"The utu should occur through the process of law," he said.
Newshub.