Man charged with mistaken identity murder of David Kuka - three years on
Friday, 17 December 2021
Police have charged a 34-year-old man with the 2018 mistaken identity murder of David Kuka.
Kuka was fatally shot at a Tauranga address on February 11, 2018, the second homicide to take place at the Wilrose Place address within a month.
A 34-year-old Raetihi man has been charged with murder and will appear in the Tauranga District Court.
Detective Inspector Lew Warner announced the arrest on Friday, and said police would not rule out further arrests.
**READ MORE:
* Three years after his 'execution', David Kuka's daughter has one question: Why?
* Gang-shooting trial: Sister of defendant accused of lying to protect her brother
* Execution-style killing of 'devout Christian' may be connected to gang murder five weeks earlier
* A year on from 'mistaken identity' killing
**
He also said they wanted to acknowledge Kuka’s extended family.
On the third anniversary of her father’s shooting Kuka’s daughter Te Kimioranga Te Kuka spoke to Stuff about her father’s killing, admitting it was “hard to deal with”.
She also told Stuff what she would say to the person who killed her father.
Just why?”
“What else is there. What did he ever do to deserve this? That’s it.”
At that time, Detective Sergeant Paul Barron told Stuff police had a narrowed down a list of suspects, and that he remained “confident” they will eventually solve the case.
The strongest theory police have for Kuka’s death traces back to an idea of a mistaken identity, linked to the same Gate Pa address where he was killed – the site of another killing just over a month before on January 3.
The “taxing” of a Nissan Maxima belonging to street level drug dealer Colin Jeffries-Smith may be what set in train events that left two men, Kuka one of them, dead.
The man charged with this murder will appear in the Tauranga District Court on Saturday.