The man on trial for murder after shooting Maketu father Isaac Bushell told a police detective he feared for his safety but did not mean to kill Mr Bushell and wept after he pulled the trigger.
Tyrone Daniel Flavell, 20, who is on trial in the High Court at Tauranga, did not deny shooting 46-year-old father of five Mr Bushell with a pump-action shotgun at close-range in the chest near a beachside carpark in Maketu about 1.30am on December 8, 2013.
But Flavell denied he had murderous intent.
Flavell gave three video-taped interviews at Tauranga police station which were played to the jury yesterday, during which he gave slightly different versions of events that night, including the disposal of the gun and who was driving his truck.
During the first interview, Flavell told Detective Graeme Dunn he feared for his safety after being assaulted and threatened by Mr Bushell, "who came at him out of nowhere" as he and his new girlfriend Sam Reid sat drinking in his truck in the carpark.