Witnesses have suggested Jekamiah Ah-Fook said, “Dayum, dayum, dayum,” as Tiari Boon-Harris rode along Queen St on a rental scooter late on the night of August 3, 2023, accompanied by partner Dariush Talagi.
When she didn’t respond, it has been suggested, Ah-Fook called Boon-Harris a “s***” and made a childish but profane remark about her anatomy.
But Ah-Fook, sitting in the witness box at Talagi’s High Court at Auckland murder trial today, told jurors he doesn’t believe he would have said any of that.
Sione Tuuholoaki was shot to death by Dariush Talagi on Auckland Central's Queen St in August 2023. Photo / Supplied
“I was probably the most sober out of all the boys, so I disagree,” he said, acknowledging that he was “somewhat” drunk or “tipsy”.
“Somebody said something in lines of a joke. We were all laughing.”
Talagi’s trial began yesterday with jurors being shown high-quality CCTV footage of the defendant firing four shots during a confrontation with Ah-Fook and his four workmates, who were wrapping up a night out on the town for a work function.
Talagi is seen on video shooting Jarome Alexander in the arm and the gut before approaching Sione Tuuholoaki from behind and shooting him in the back of the head - described by prosecutors as an “execution-style” killing. He then fired at Ah-Fook but missed. It wasn’t until then that Ah-Fook decided to run away.
Regardless of how the disagreement started, Ah-Fook acknowledged he tried to instigate a physical fight with Talagi. The witness, who described experience with boxing and mixed-martial arts, said he made several feints at the defendant while facing off with him - trying to get the defendant to react.
He walked away after realising Talagi had a weapon and was surprised to see three co-workers step in, he recalled.
“He kept having his eyes on me, even though there was three individuals in front of him,” Ah-Fook said. “He had his hand underneath his shirt, gripping something.”
Tiari Boon-Harris (left) and her partner Dariush Talagi (right). Photos / Supplied
Ah-Fook said he later decided to throw the first punch, pulling the defendant down to the ground before following up with a series of additional blows.
“I thought my friends were going to be in danger,” he said of his motivation. “It was mostly just a struggle between me trying to get the gun off him and him reaching for it the whole time.”
He said he thought going on the offensive against a man with a gun was “the most appropriate decision in my head”.
“It seemed to me he was going to use the gun on either me as I turned my back or one of my friends,” he speculated.
Ah-Fook said he initially thought it was just the two of them fighting at that moment. He didn’t realise until later that Alexander had joined in, at which point he was shot twice.
“After I repeatedly punched him in the head ... that’s when I heard a shot go off,” he said. “The adrenaline was just kicking in so I kept on.”
He stepped out of the fray as another co-worker stepped in, he said. Moments later, the third shot went off.
“He just went up to Sione [Tuuholoaki],” Ah-Fook said, pausing before finishing his sentence: “and then pulled the trigger.”
Tuuholoaki had not kicked or punched Talagi but had pushed and was crouching over Bobby Boon-Harris, the partially disabled brother of Talagi’s partner. Bobby Boon-Harris had been knocked to the ground and pummelled by another man immediately after arriving at the scene before Tuuholoaki approached him.
Talagi’s lawyers have suggested the defendant shot Tuuholoaki in defence of Bobby Boon-Harris.
“It was a mess,” Ah-Fook said. “There was blood everywhere. He cocks his gun again and this time to shoot me, but he missed. I ended up running off towards the alleyway.”
Defence lawyer Jo Scott suggested during cross-examination of Ah-Fook that her client and his partner had been minding their own business and having fun on the scooters until the witness yelled out at them.
“Did you feel like fighting that night?” she asked.
“No. I wanted to go home,” he responded.
Scott continued: “Did you feel like yelling out insults would be a good way to start a fight?”
“No way,” he responded.
But he did challenge Talagi, he said, to a “clean one-on-on”. He defined the term as a situation where two people fight “and whoever gets dropped, that’s the end of it - walk away”.
“If there’s a confrontation or any type of disagreement, that’s how we settle it,” he explained.
“Mr Talagi made it very clear to you he did not want to fight, didn’t he?” the defence lawyer asked.
“I have no idea,” Ah-Fook responded.
He later acknowledged: “He probably felt threatened because of the number of people I had with me.” But he emphasised that Talagi had the “ultimate equaliser” - a gun - so probably wouldn’t have felt too scared.
Electric scooters abandoned on lower Queen St following a shooting incident at 11.30pm on August 3, 2023. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Ah-Fook was followed in the witness box by co-worker Paul Sulusulu. The largest statured of the five co-workers, he appeared on the video to play the role of a peacemaker.
He recalled tension building after Talagi said to the group, “What, what, I’ve got a gun.”
“It happened so fast,” he said of the events that followed. “All I can remember was I was trying to stop things. It just escalated so fast, I didn’t know how to react. I was trying to call the boys off.”
He recalled telling Talagi to “just walk off” but he wouldn’t back off.
“I remember thinking, ‘Man, you’re a small dude,‘” he said of his surprise the stranger didn’t just leave.
He appeared to shake slightly as prosecutors played CCTV footage of the killing. Jurors have now seen the video roughly a dozen times but it was the first time it had been played since the witness entered the courtroom.
“I froze. I was in shock,” he said. “You only see that stuff in movies where someone puts a gun to your head.”
The trial continues before Justice Mathew Downs and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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