Driver relives carjacking terror

Carjacking victim Shing Lau (left) with an interpreter. Picture / Dean Purcell

As Shing Lau drove around New Lynn with a hijacker firing shots at police out the window, he tried to tell the gunman he was not a good driver.

In the Auckland District Court yesterday, Mr Lau relived the 45 minutes of terror after he, his mother, Po Yin Ng, and father Yue Kwan Lau were allegedly kidnapped by Leonard Archer Hall.

Police say Hall hijacked Mr Lau's car in the St Lukes carpark, forcing him to drive while he sprayed bullets from the back seat at pursuing police.

Last June 5, police say, they tried to stop Hall, who was driving a silver Skyline in Ponsonby. He sped off, reaching over 100km/h, forcing them to abandon the chase for public safety.

The court heard that Hall was found in St Lukes carpark where he fired shots at police before trying to hijack a number of cars.

Mr Lau said yesterday that he saw police in the carpark and a woman run screaming into the shopping centre, then his father's front passenger door opened. He said the heavily tattooed Hall was carrying a gun and tried to get into his father's seat but could not fit, so got into the back with his mother.

"He told me to drive, hurry up, hurry up."

When they got to traffic lights where police were waiting Mr Lau said Hall told him to keep going.

He drove his Volkswagen Passat through the lights with police following and Hall firing shots out the window between bouts of vomiting.

"I told him that I am not a good driver, that my driving skills are not good and he should go look for someone else," Mr Lau told justices of the peace Robin Wray and Kenneth McKay.

"He was vomiting in the car as if he's had some medicine or alcohol, I don't know," Mr Lau told crown prosecutor Kane Patena.

Mr Lau said that when he hit a parked car in New Lynn, Hall raised the gun and pointed it at his father.

"He told me to reverse the car and I heard a screeching noise and he told me to start driving straight ahead again. I did that because he had the gun on my father's shoulder."

The pursuit continued along the Northwestern Motorway towards the city until Mr Lau said a police patrol car pulled up alongside, crashing into his car and forcing him to stop.

At the end of yesterday's hearing, Hall was committed to the High Court for trial and remanded in custody for a callover on March 8.


The charges

* Leonard Archer Hall was yesterday remanded in custody for trial on 18 charges.

* Hall, 35, pleaded not guilty to three charges of kidnapping, two of attempted murder, four of recklessly discharging a firearm, two of using a firearm against police and seven of using one to commit an offence.