The police officer who was injured in the shooting that killed Constable Matthew Hunt in West Auckland last June has told a court the bullets that hit him felt like "an explosion of acid through his belt" and that at one point when he locked eyes with the gunman, he thought he was going to die.
Constable David Goldfinch was called as a Crown witness in the trial of Eli Epiha at the High Court at Auckland this afternoon.
Epiha, 25, has pleaded guilty to Constable Matt Hunt’s murder, as well as a charge of dangerous driving causing injury to a member of the public.
But Epiha denies the attempted murder of Constable Goldfinch, who was shot and wounded that day.
Today, while being questioned by Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey, Constable Goldfinch told the court, he and Constable Hunt were parked on Massey’s Triangle Road carrying out general road policing duties in June last year, when a vehicle came through an intersection “way too fast”.
After running the vehicle’s details through the police system, Goldfinch said he could tell the person in the car was not the registered driver, and he and Constable Hunt decided to try and stop him.
But when the Constable’s caught up to the vehicle, it had crashed.
"All of a sudden we saw there was just smoke and debris all over the road," Constable Goldfinch told the court.
Goldfinch said he got out of the police car because he thought the driver might have been injured, but he only managed a few steps before he saw the male walk around the side of the car with a firearm he said looked like an AK47.
"I said f****n stop bro, put the f****n gun down, words to that effect, I yelled it at him," he told the court.
Constable Goldfinch said it was then that the gunman pointed the firearm and began to shoot.
He said at that point, he tried to take cover behind a car.
"It was kind of like a cat and mouse thing,"
"I think he was trying to get a clean shot at me," Goldfinch said.
He told the court he again spoke to the gunman, saying, “Just f*****g stop, just f*****g walk away I won’t arrest you,” but Goldfinch said the gunman kept shooting.
"It’s that flash of like, this is where I die" he told the court.
Goldfinch described the bullets that hit him that day as, “Just that incredible pain of like someone had thrown a bomb of acid at you.”
The Constable told the court he managed to run down a driveway and around the back of a house, where he radioed for help, before jumping the fence and running further away.
After being assisted by a member of the public he said he saw more police arriving in the area.
"All of a sudden I just saw one of my colleagues come over a hill with a rifle and once I saw one I saw 20 police officers and then I just collapsed."
The Crown alleges Constable David Goldfinch was shot at with a semi-automatic firearm ten times that day, and was hit by four bullets, one striking his hip, two going through his leg, and one hitting his boot.
Crown Prosecutor Alysha McClintock told the court in her opening address at the start of the trial, that bullets pursued Constable Goldfinch as he ran for what he believed was his life.
"He was very lucky that day," she said.
Eli Epiha’s defence has told the court that while Epiha accepts he shot and wounded Constable Goldfinch that day, it was not with the intent to murder him.
"The Crown claims that Eli Epiha actually attempted to kill Constable Goldfinch, and the defence dispute that, and that is why you are here," defence lawyer Mark Edgar told the jury.
On trial alongside Eli Epiha, is Natalie Bracken, 31.
She has pleaded not guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact to Matt Hunt’s murder, by allegedly driving a vehicle to enable Epiha to avoid arrest.
The trial, which is in its fourth day, is expected to last up to three weeks.
