“I was screaming and crying for help.”
The wife of a West Auckland man has told the court of how she ran to her husband’s side after he was hit by a car, driven by the man who went on to murder Constable Matthew Hunt.
Twenty-five-year-old Eli Epiha was fleeing from police at speed when he hit the man, who was loading his car for a family weekend away.
It was that crash site that became the scene of the fatal police shooting on June 19 last year.
The trial for Epiha’s entered a fourth day, at the High Court in Auckland.
Epiha has admitted to murdering Hunt, and to dangerous driving causing injury to a member of the public.
A 12-person jury at the High Court in Auckland is tasked with determining if he’s guilty of attempting to murder another officer, Constable David Goldfinch.
They must also decide if 31-year-old Natalie Bracken was an accessory after the fact of murder.
The wife of the injured member of the public has told the court she ran outside after hearing a loud crash, concerned their car may’ve been involved.
“The first thing I saw that my husband was lying down and there was bleeding out of his head,” the woman told the court.
The woman's name and that of her family is suppressed.
“He was lying down … I was screaming and crying for help,” she said.
The sound of her screams can be heard on CCTV footage, captured on a neighbouring property.
Eli Epiha and Natalie Bracken are seen driving away as Constable Hunt’s body lies on the road.
The woman told the court that she suddenly became aware of gunshots being fired.
“I was dragging [my husband] to the driveway, the first thing I think is we need to go inside.”
To her right side, she then spotted the man with the gun.
Her response: “I got on top of my husband, covering him … I was afraid we would get shot.”
The woman also recalled receiving some assistance from a woman, identified as Bracken, the co-accused.
“She straight away come to my husband and ask my husband are you okay did you get hurt?” she told the court.
She says she asked her to call an ambulance, but at that point, she went away, and didn’t come back.
A jury at the High Court in Auckland played audio of shots being fired by Eli Epiha as he murdered Constable Matthew Hunt.
SHARE ME