Shotgun blast killed 2-year-old girl

Tears flow in court as father denies manslaughter of daughter who was ‘playing up’ during house move

Afather aimed a loaded shotgun at his daughter’s head in frustration at her “playing up” before the gun went off just a metre away from the 2-year-old, a court has been told.

Amokoura Daniels-Sanft died from a shot in the head on June 2 last year. Her father, Gustav Otto Sanft, is charged with her manslaughter.

Sanft, 26, has pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a pistol, as the sawn-off shotgun was technically classified. He is on trial in the High Court at Auckland before a jury and Justice Geoffrey Venning.

Two-year-old Amokoura was fatally shot in the drive of her family home in South Auckland. She had been living on Favona Rd, Mangere, with Sanft, her mother, Julia Daniels, and her three siblings.

Crown prosecutor Katie Hogan said in her opening address yester- day that “there is no evidence that the gun fired accidentally”.

The day before, Sanft’s older children were clearing out a hot water cupboard when they found a sawnoff shotgun wrapped in a sheet, Hogan said. Sanft did not have a secure gun safe at the home or a firearms licence, she said.

The next day as the family prepared to move homes, Daniels left to hire a skip bin, leaving the four children at home with Sanft and another.

At about 11.30am some friends of Sanft and Daniels arrived to help with the move.

One of the men told police that when he arrived Sanft was in the drive “holding a sawn-off shotgun with both hands”, Hogan said.

She added that Amokoura was “playing up” and jumping on the couches in the driveway.

“[Sanft] became angry and pointed the gun, perhaps intending to only scare her.”

He caused the death of his child . . . but it was an accident. Defence counsel Phil Hamlin

Sanft then pulled the Hogan told the court.

Amokoura was shot just above her left eye at “close range”, causing a “significant and unsurvivable head wound”.

A “distraught” Sanft immediately dropped the shotgun to aid his wounded daughter, Hogan said.

Three police vehicles, which happened to be driving past, were waved down.

“The scene that police arrived at was chaotic and traumatic,” Hogan said. During the distressing scene Sanft made a series of remarks to police, she said.

“I pulled the trigger, she was just playing up, I f****d up, what have I trigger, done?” Hogan said Sanft told an officer. “I shot her, I shot her.”

Hogan said Sanft’s 5-year-old stepson also witnessed the incident and told an officer that “dad was angry”.

Sanft also told an ambulance officer, “I don’t want your sympathy” and “I’m a killer”, Hogan told the jury.

She said Sanft also mentioned to police he was less than a metre from his daughter when he fired the gun.

Family friend Anna Leao, who was helping Sanft’s family move homes, recalled hearing a bang. She then witnessed the tragic aftermath.

“That’s when I realised that Amo had died,” she said, struggling with tears, as Sanft also broke down in the dock, breathing heavily, tears rolling down his face.

She remembered seeing Sanft “sobbing and calling [Amo’s] name” while cradling his dead child, but had not seen him earlier handling the gun.

Leao was seemingly haunted by one horrific memory: “On the top of my head there was a bit of her skull,” she said through tears. “We couldn’t hear her voice any more.”

The Crown earlier told the court how the firearm had been modified with both the barrel and wooden handle sawn off and the serial number ground off.

The Norinco JW87 12-gauge singlebarrel shotgun was 1.98kg and 450mm long, and therefore technically classed as a pistol.

Police fired 12 test shots and on four of the shots the gun failed to fire, Hogan told the jury.

Defence counsel Phil Hamlin said in his opening address that the gun had fired accidentally.

“He caused the death of his child, the own flesh and blood of his daughter but it was an accident,” he said. “The shotgun fired accidentally without having to have pulled the trigger.”

He said Sanft did not believe the gun was loaded and did not “point the gun at her or at her head”.