A building apprentice’s late-night walk to get a pie in Waipukurau turned into a nightmare when he was chased and assaulted by what he alleges was a group of youths. 

Reece Hingaia, 24, was left critically injured with multiple broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a concussion last Wednesday after the group beat him and hit him with what he understands was a scooter. 

He was discharged on Monday this week after days of recovering in hospital. James Pocock reports. 

Reece Hingaia’s evening began with a few casual beers with friends in Waipawa from his pre-trade apprenticeship course before he asked a mate to sober-drive him to his home in Waipukurau. 

By the end of the night, ambulance staff were inserting a breathing tube into his lungs as they raced to transport his broken body to hospital. 

Hingaia was feeling a bit tipsy and hungry when he arrived home about 11pm on Wednesday, April 17 and he craved a pie from the service station less than a kilometre away. 

Just as he began his walk to get a pie he says he encountered a group of teens on Jellicoe St. He said he estimates the teens were between 13 and 18 years old. 

“I was like ‘What’s going on here?’ then they started being aggressive. You know what teenagers are like, they were trying to start trouble,” he said. 

“I knew they were young, there were like four of them and I was like ‘Bugger off, I’m just trying to go to the gas station’.” 

He said the aggression escalated to the point that one of the youths took his phone off him, at which point the group started chasing him down the road for roughly 700 metres. 

“We went near the Caltex [on the corner of Russell St and Herbert St] and that’s where they stopped. One of them, I think it was the leader, came up and he was trying to start s*** with me,” he said. 

“Then they all just swarmed me ... they just went to town. 

“They were just laughing while they were abusing me, just kicking the s*** out of me.” 

Reece Hingaia said the group of four youths appeared to be aged 13 to 18 years old and were acting aggressively towards him while he went to get a pie. Photo / Paul Taylor 

Hingaia said while he struggled to breathe on the ground, he heard the concerned voice of a member of the public. 

“I heard one of the public, thank god, say ‘Are you okay?’. I didn’t know who it was, but I was like ‘Okay, someone has seen me, I am in good hands’.” 

The details are foggy for Hingaia, but he recalls that he was taken by an ambulance and sedated with a kind of breathing tube put “through” his lungs. 

He said ambulance staff had written in a report that he was hit pretty hard on the back of the head with a scooter, which had knocked him out. 

“My right side ribs were broken, at least two of them, and then when they broke they punctured my right lung as well and that collapsed,” he said. 

“I had a pretty big concussion, my throat was all messed up and they put me on a breathing thing.” 

He said he was luckily bouncing back and recovering well thanks to being young, but there had been concerns about the impact the head trauma could have on him. 

His plans to potentially start work experience though his course had “gone out the window” due to the incident and the “traumatic” incident had made him reluctant to go outside. 

“As much as I don’t like the kids, I think it’s the parents’ fault in a way,” he said. 

“What are they doing out? They shouldn’t be out.” 

A police spokesman said the most recent update on the alleged assault was filed by an officer on Friday, April 20. In it, the officer said police were continuing to work with Youth Aid and were still working to identify some of the young people involved. 

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. [email protected] 

This article was originally published on the NZ Herald here.