Gun ‘exploded’ and killed girl, says dad
Gustav Sanft told police ‘‘I pulled the trigger’’ hours after he shot and killed his 2-year-old daughter.
Sanft is on trial at the High Court in Auckland charged with manslaughter after shooting Amokura Daniels-sanft in the head with a sawn-off shotgun.
The incident occurred in June 2016 at their home in Mangere, South Auckland.
The Crown alleges Sanft pointed the gun at his daughter and pulled the trigger while she was playing on a couch in the driveway. They say he may not have known the gun was going to fire, or was loaded, but pointed the gun to ‘‘scare’’ Amokura for misbehaving.
Sanft’s defence counsel Phil Hamlin argues the gun went off inadvertently without the trigger being pulled.
An emotional video of Sanft being interviewed by Detective James Ralph hours after he killed Amokura was played to the jury yesterday.
The 20-minute video shows Sanft howling and sometimes screaming his daughter’s name.
At another point, Sanft can be heard saying he did not know the gun was loaded.
‘‘I had the gun. I was swinging it around, playing. I didn’t know it was loaded,’’ he said between sobs.
When prompted by Ralph to explain what had happened, Sanft said the gun did not work.
‘‘It never does. We’ve tried to shoot it so many times. We tried to shoot the gun so many times. It never worked,’’ he said.
‘‘It all happened so fast. I was playing with it. I was playing with it. And then it exploded.
‘‘That’s it, it exploded. I pulled the trigger. I was surprised. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to say. There is no point living any more.’’
While the video was played, Sanft hung his head and moaned in the dock.
Ralph told the court Sanft told him he had his finger on the trigger, and was swinging the gun before it fired.
Sanft said he had the gun for four months, after it was given to him by a friend who had since gone to jail, Ralph said.
Immediately following the shooting, Sanft was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.
Under cross examination, Hamlin pointed out to Howie that he had not followed police procedure in processing some of the evidence.
Hamlin said to Ralph he failed to show Sanft the notes he had taken during an interview, which was police procedure.
The court also heard yesterday that Sanft told paramedic Shayna Bennison ’I don’t deserve your sympathy’ when she offered to hug him moments after his daughter was shot in the head.
Bennison said she had taken one look at Amokura and realised her injuries with ‘‘incompatible with life’’.