A man has been charged after an alleged paintball gun drive-by shooting spree through Dunedin in which he shot at two 14-year-old boys.
The 19-year-old was arrested 6.30pm Friday night after shooting the weapon out of a car window on John Wilson Ocean Dr.
Senior Sergeant Craig Dinnissen said one of the boys had two welts on his back after the incident.
It was lucky police were able distinguish the weapons were paintball guns and not firearms, he said.
"If we couldn't it would have been an AOS callout. Things can escalate hugely.
"What was going through his brain at the time, if anything actually was.''
The charge would mostly likely end up being assault with a weapon, he said.
Police were making further enquiries into the driver of the car, who could also be culpable.
Police were working to connect the incident with another that day in which three Ritchies tour buses were struck by paintball guns in Ravensbourne shortly after 3pm that day.
This impaired the visibility of the vehicles as they were driving.
Police were "pretty confident" they were connected, he said.
