Connor Whitehead was shot and killed at a birthday party. Photo: Give a Little
The host of a birthday party has broken down in tears describing how she comforted Christchurch teenager Connor Whitehead in his final moments after he was shot, reassuring him he would be okay.
The 16-year-old was killed while standing outside with friends when the 15th birthday party spun out of control in Casebrook in November 2021.
Daniel Nelson Sparks, 44, and Joshua David Craig Smith, 33, are on trial at the High Court accused of murdering Connor when they arrived with guns to scatter the late-night crowd in Heaphy Place.
Korin Steedman told the court she believed about six Crips gang members were intimidating and frightening party-goers and bloodied teens came to her for help.
"A lot of children came in with blood all over them. I helped clean them up. I attended to about two or three, I helped them, got flannels and helped get the blood off them."
The court earlier heard Sparks and Smith armed themselves with pump-action and sawn-off shotguns and drove to the party after a distressed teen called for help to scare the gang members causing trouble.
Steedman told the court she ran outside when she heard kids screaming "he's got a gun, he's got a gun!", saw a white car in the cul-de-sac and heard two gunshots in the space of about 10 to 20 seconds.
"I heard a gunshot go off and I saw a flash coming from the car. I hid behind a tree.
"Everyone was crowding around. Connor had a seizure, I didn't know he'd been shot at this stage and I was holding onto him, rubbing his back and telling him it was going to be okay, and telling all the other kids to go away because he just needed some peace and quiet."
Steedman said Connor was lying unconscious outside the kitchen window while people were standing around him yelling.
"I was telling all the kids to leave him alone, and then eventually it was just a couple of us around him.
"I started to freak out that they were going to come back so I went inside and the ambulance people came.
"His best friend was trying to resuscitate him and then when the ambulance officers came they just pushed him out of the way and started resuscitation on him."
She had not met Connor before the party, but described him as a "very polite young man".
"It was a traumatic night for me. I've blacked out a lot of that night."
After the shooting, Steedman sent a text message to Daniel Sparks saying "WTAF".
"Why did I send it? A shot got fired. A boy got shot and he died, so I let him know what they'd done had killed him."
A teenage party-goer told the court she saw a man standing in the driveway with a gun arguing with another teen.
"[The teen] told him to shoot him and kept yelling, but he wouldn't, and then we heard a gunshot and just ran behind the trees."
The Crown argues two shots were fired - one from each gun by each man - and Joshua Smith is most likely to have fired the fatal shot.
The court has heard Connor was shot at close range, from about nine to 12 metres away, and was an innocent bystander.
On Monday Smith's lawyer Daniel Kirby said his client accepted responsibility for Connor's death, but was guilty of manslaughter not murder.
Sparks' lawyer Nicola Pointer said he did not fire the fatal shot and was not guilty of murder.
The jury trial before Justice Melanie Harland is expected to last three weeks.