This story contains some graphic details.
The colleague of slain police officer Matthew Hunt has recounted a "surreal moment" he shared with the gunman - before what felt like an explosion of acid in his hip, as he was shot.
Earlier this week, the jury was shown footage of Eli Epiha and Natalie Bracken in the moments before and after Matthew Hunt's shooting. Photo: NZ Police
Constable David Goldfinch has given evidence this morning in the trial of Eli Epiha who admits murdering Hunt and dangerous driving causing injury.
Epiha denies he was attempting to murder Goldfinch when he shot at him.
Goldfinch said he and Hunt were in a police vehicle together in Massey doing everyday traffic policing when they decided to follow a Toyota car with a "pretty poor" manner of driving.
It turned down Reynella Drive, where they saw it start to go "at the rate of knots," he said.
They lost sight of it, then arrived at the scene of a crash where a woman was screaming at the top of her lungs and it was difficult to see through all the smoke.
"I said to Matt 'whoa he's crashed," Goldfinch said.
"There was smoke and debris all over the road and a smashed-up vehicle."
Goldfinch said he got out expecting to find an injured person behind the steering wheel.
Instead he found himself standing face to face with a man - the driver of the Toyota - holding a gun. He said the man's finger was on the trigger.
"He was walking very aggressively straight towards me. I put my hands up to show him I didn't have a gun. I said '***ing stop bro. ***ing put the gun down'."
Goldfinch said he walked backwards, and the man pointed the gun at him.
"He started pulling the trigger firing bullets at me ... I kept hearing them. The sounds ... the crack of a firearm is just unmistakable."
Goldfinch said he attempted to hide behind a parked SUV, and found himself in a game of "cat and mouse" with the gunman, who followed him and seemed to be trying to get a clear shot.
Goldfinch recounted a brief moment where he thought the gunman might cease.
"I saw him almost kind of contemplating what I'd said to him. And after a few seconds, his head just kinda clicked. It was like he'd just made a decision. And it was like 'I'm gonna kill ya'."
Goldfinch said he saw the gun flash saw an explosion of shrapnel, felt heat on his arms and hair and thought 'this is where I die'.
"The ground was exploding and the grass, the concrete."
He was unsure how that bullet missed, he said, but the next one did not.
"I felt one into my hip. I felt an explosion of acid through my belt. And then in very quick succession it was just hip and then my leg and my calf muscle."
"I believe from that moment he just didn't stop. He just kept going. I ran."
Goldfinch remembered running across the road, down a driveway and to the back of a house where he took a knee and saw his pants blown apart and holes in his leg.
As he talked to police comms on the radio Goldfinch remembered seeing a "casual conversation" between the gunman and a woman on the street.
He believes the woman said "I don't got no keys on me."
Goldfinch said he received radio comms loudly, drawing the attention of the gunman, who turned as if he was going to come after Goldfinch again.
"I jumped up again and ran down the back lawn and jumped over the fence. I was going as fast as I could. I ran down through more properties."
Goldfinch remembered sheltering with a nearby resident, who had called 111 for help, then collapsing as he saw police backup arrive.
He was taken to hospital shortly after.
Earlier today, a bystander to the shooting described how she lay on top of her injured husband, so he wouldn't be shot.
The woman said she was standing on the berm of Reynella Drive, helping her husband to pack the car for a family trip to Rotorua, when the crash happened.
The woman said a dark car "moving very fast" ploughed into the car and her husband, knocking him "totally unconscious" and bleeding from the head.
She began to drag him up the driveway, as a man "with a big gun" approached.
The woman said he was about three metres away.
"All I can remember is black dress and fair skin and maybe long hair," she said.
"He was just walking towards us. When I saw him I was very afraid. I got on top of my husband ... I was so afraid that maybe we get shot. I'm just praying."
She said a woman with fair skin and black hair later approached her, asking if she needed help, and she asked the woman for an ambulance.
Another family member recalled seeing the man with the gun shoot at a police officer, who appeared to be defending himself.
It is day four of the trial before Justice Venning and a jury.
The trial is set down for three weeks.