A friend of Eli Epiha, the man who fatally shot Constable Matthew Hunt in West Auckland last year, has told the court that Epiha came to him on the day of the shooting and wanted him to drive him somewhere.
Epiha has pleaded guilty to killing Constable Hunt, but the 25-year-old denies the attempted murder of Constable David Goldfinch, accepting he wounded him - but not with the intent to kill.
Natalie Bracken is also on trial charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder by allegedly driving Epiha to enable him to avoid arrest.
On Friday, the court heard from Epiha's friend Shane Conza. Police-collated CCTV played to the court showed Epiha and Bracken arriving at the property where Conza was staying after they fled the scene of the shooting.
"He came towards me and yeah, he wanted me to drive him somewhere," Conza told the court. Conza took some of Epiha's belongings to his car and put them in the boot.
But he said he didn't speak to Epiha about what he had been doing that morning - and Epiha didn't tell him the belongings were a gun.
"It was just a whole bunch of clothes and stuff - well, that's how I felt about it at that time," Conza said.
Conza said after he and Epiha began driving, he stopped in Waimauku to take something out of the boot and put it on the side of the road.
He said at that point he knew it was a gun, which he described as an AK47. Conza told the court that as they headed towards Wellsford, Epiha didn't bring up the gun - and he didn't ask.
"I just recall him saying that he'd f***ked up, along the way or something, but that was under his breath - that wasn't directly to me."
The pair were pulled over shortly after by police. Epiha was spoken to by constable Eli Antunovich, and provided the police with false details.
But Conza assisted the police. He said Epiha was the man they were looking for, and when clothing matching a police description of the shooter was found in the car, Epiha was arrested.
A CCTV compilation played to the Auckland High Court on Friday shows Epiha's movements following the shooting, while police aerial vision shows a wounded Constable Goldfinch lying in the street
The wounded officer was lying on the footpath in his hi-vis police jacket as backup began arriving at the scene.
Played as evidence in court, the aerial footage shows a group surrounding Goldfinch while an emergency response team attempted to save the life of his colleague, Constable Hunt, only streets away.
CCTV also showed Constable Goldfinch limping and being helped down the road.
