KEY POINTS:
Murder accused Bruce Emery told police he only ever wanted to scare taggers away from his house and he "couldn't believe" the "poor little bugger" had died.
Emery was interviewed by police just hours after the killing of Pihema Cameron in Manurewa last January. In an interview played to the High Court yesterday, he told Detective Constable Ian Thomas he wished he had left the knife at home as he ran out the door. "Wish I'd grabbed a broom handle or anything - just stayed at home."
He told of raising the knife at Mr Cameron and a 16-year-old friend because he thought it would make them back off, but said Mr Cameron "stepped into" it.
Emery suspected they had tagged his garage door and chased them from his house for 300m.
Mr Cameron, 15, died almost instantly after he was stabbed in the chest.
Emery says he was defending himself and has pleaded not guilty to murder at a trial underway in the High Court at Auckland.
Asked what he felt when the knife struck Mr Cameron he said it felt "soft".
"I didn't think it done much damage at all. I didn't think it was far in. ... He didn't say much, just sort of sat on the ground."
As he walked back to his house he saw blood on the knife.
"I realised there was blood but thought it was [from] his shoulder."
He said he did not think it had "caused much damage" and left the scene because he was worried about being outnumbered.
Mr Thomas asked him how he felt when told Mr Cameron was dead.
"I just couldn't believe it. Just can't believe it. Wouldn't wish that on anyone - it never occurred to me that he was dead. I just wish I'd stopped. The poor little bugger."
Emery said he only wanted to scare the taggers. "I just wanted to scare the little buggers. Why can't they just stay at home?"
Earlier, Emery's lawyer Chris Comeskey said Mr Cameron and his 16-year-old friend, who has name suppression and appeared as a witness, lured Emery into a dark street. Mr Comeskey accused them of trying to "ambush" Emery.
Mr Comeskey said the pair could have run away but lured Emery to a dark part of Southview Place. Speaking to the witness, he said: "You lured the accused into a street which was dark and deceptive. He wasn't exactly aware where you were until Pihema said 'Let's rush him'."
The witness said Emery knew where they were because he caught up to them easily but Mr Comeskey said: "You ambushed him."
Asked what "rush him" meant, the witness said it meant to "give him a hiding".
"You agreed to be part of that hiding," Mr Comeskey said.
"We didn't throw any hits ... we didn't even try to. I thought it was just to scare him," the witness said.
The witness said Mr Cameron kept walking backwards while Emery kept walking forwards but Mr Comeskey said that Mr Cameron "moved onto the knife then moved off".
Mr Comeskey told the court Emery had been blinded and choked by the paint sprayed into his face by the young men.
