Police officer only saw one shooter

Constable Jeremy Snow gives evidence in the Auckland High Court in the trial against Neshanderan Rajgopaul today. Photo / Richard Robinson

A police constable shot four times while investigating a suspected car break-in in south Auckland in December 2009 says he has no doubt about the identity of the gunman.

Neshanderan Rajgopaul, 29, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland for the attempted murder of Constable Jeremy Snow in Papatoetoe.

The defence claims that Rajgopaul was not responsible for the shooting.

Mr Snow was shot four times when he and his partner stopped to check a car in a driveway of a house they believed was being broken into,

Three bullets penetrated his body, one hitting a major blood vessel in his leg.

He was rescued by armed police as he came close to dying from blood loss.

Continuing his cross-examination today, defence counsel Ron Mansfield asked Mr Snow if he saw anyone else hiding in a bush close by in the backyard that night.

"When I scanned the area I didn't see anyone else and my torch stayed on the shooter," Mr Snow replied.

"There was only one man in the back yard with me and that's who I saw the whole time, he added.

Mr Mansfield asked Mr Snow if he saw the firearm.

Mr Snow said he saw it when it was pointed at him.

Mr Mansfield read him his statement which said, "I didn't see the firearm clearly but it sounded like a Glock."

Mr Snow agreed with what he had said in his statement, and added that he heard the bangs but didn't see the firearm clearly enough to describe it.

The constable said he saw the man drop to one knee and a firearm was drawn.

"That's not something I believe happened, I saw it with my own eyes," Mr Snow said.

"There were two discharges which happened within a split second of each other.

"It took me a moment to believe it was real," he added.

Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery asked Mr Snow to identify whether the man in the dock -- Rajgopaul -- was the same man who fired the shots.

Mr Snow agreed Rajgopaul was the shooter, and said he saw him swivel round, dropping to one knee, before he drew a pistol and pointed it at him, then started firing.

Mr Mansfield told the jury yesterday that Rajgopaul was not the shooter, it was his friend Darrin Court, who was also at the house that night.

The Crown had brushed over details of the movements of Mr Court and his role, he told the court.

Mr Court was high on methamphetamine and feared being arrested. He was also hiding in the bushes near Rajgopaul but was not seen by Mr Snow.

Mr Court has admitted he was at the scene when Mr Snow was shot but denied being the shooter, Mr Mansfield said.

As well as the attempted murder charge, Rajgopaul faces one of threatening to kill, one of firing a weapon with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, four of unlawfully possessing a firearm, and one each of possessing a class A drug for supply and receiving stolen property.

He also faces two charges of assault using a firearm as a weapon relating to incidents between November and December 2009. He has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges before the jury of six men and six women.

The trial is set down for three weeks.

- NZPA