• Murder defendant Darish Talagi has addressed jurors directly, giving evidence in his High Court trial.
• He said he was surprised by CCTV showing him shooting stranger Sione Tuuholoaki in the back of the head at point-blank range.
• Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock suggested Talagi lied throughout his testimony and that his real motivation wasn’t self-defence but revenge.

Murder defendant Darish Talagi told jurors today that he was as surprised as anyone when CCTV footage showed him putting the barrel of a pistol within 1cm of the back of a stranger’s skull and pulling the trigger while on Auckland Central’s busy Queen St.

He didn’t have any recollection of having shot Sione Tuuholoaki on the night of August 3, 2023, immediately after being repeatedly kicked and punched by Tuuholoaki’s co-workers, he said.

In fact, he added, the gun wasn’t actually his and he didn’t think it was real, just a harmless starter pistol.

“I don’t even remember walking over to him,” he said today from the witness box in the High Court at Auckland, adding that he was in pain and his vision was slightly “fuzzy” after enduring the brief but violent attack. “I just remember a loud bang.”

He was later asked by his lawyer how he felt about the matter.

“I feel, like, terrible and, to be honest, a little bit haunted,” he said in a softly spoken but emotionless tone. “I still have dreams about him. I feel like he’s always with me.

“I didn’t want anybody to die that night.”

Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock would later take issue with almost everything Talagi said, suggesting it was curious that his “memory problem seemed to occur just at the point you are pulling the trigger of a lethal weapon”. The gun was his and he knew death was likely when he knowingly pulled the trigger, she also suggested.

“This is revenge, what you did to Mr Tuuholoaki, wasn’t it?” she asked.

The defendant disagreed.

Talagi has been on trial since Monday, accused of murdering Tuuholoaki and causing grievous bodily harm to a second man he shot in the arm and the gut. His lawyers acknowledged at the outset of the trial that their client is responsible for the shootings but said the trigger was pulled in defence of himself or others.

Sione Tuuholoaki was shot to death on Auckland's Queen Street in August 2023. Photo / Supplied

The defendant’s own testimony, however, appeared to suggest that the shootings were an accident while in a confused daze rather than self-defence. He’s expected to continue giving evidence on Monday.

Talagi told jurors his troubles started several days before the shooting, when he had a small gathering at his Manurewa home and a friend of a friend accidentally left a bag behind. He later got nosey and found the gun inside it, he said.

Several days later, as he visited Auckland Central with partner Tiari Boon-Harris and her partially disabled brother, Bobby Boon-Harris, he brought the gun with him. The purpose of the dinner in the city was to celebrate another friend’s birthday, but he really wanted to celebrate because he had just found out his partner was pregnant, he said.

He arranged to drop off the gun to its owner after going out that night, he said, explaining that he didn’t just leave it in his vehicle while out because he was afraid his “flash” SUV might get burgled.

Police released this image of Darish Talagi's vehicle during the three months he was on the run. Photo / Supplied

He had taken two microdose tablets of ketamine that night because he gets anxious in social situations, and he had several drinks at a nearby bar after dinner, he said. They then rode around the lower Queen St area on Lime scooters.

“We were having fun the whole night and just enjoying ourselves,” he said.

Five other witnesses, including the defendant’s partner, have said a confrontation between Talagi and the strangers began shortly after one of the strangers made an obscene remark about his partner as she rode by. But if there were insults shouted, Talagi told jurors, he wasn’t aware of it that night.

The defendant said he stopped and turned towards the group, all of which was caught on CCTV footage, because he saw the other group gesturing towards him and he didn’t realise their intentions were hostile.

“At first I thought they might know me or I might have dropped something over there,” he said, explaining that he was seen immediately fiddling with the bag containing the gun because he was checking to see if the cigarettes he had recently purchased had fallen out.

Prosecutors have alleged what the CCTV actually shows is the defendant immediately reaching for the gun as he approached the group in anger over the remarks.

The video also shows him smiling. Crown witnesses described it as a menacing smile as Talagi hurled insults at the person alleged to have made the disparaging comment, but he said he was smiling so that his body language didn’t give off an aggressive vibe.

There were five members in Tuuholoaki‘s group and Falagi said each one of them at one point tried to bait him into a fight as he tried to figure out a way out of the situation.

“So I showed them the handle of the gun and told them to back away,” he said. “I thought it might deter them from trying to rush me. But I didn’t want to show them the whole thing ... because it looked like a toy.”

The men didn’t back off and ignored him when he suggested they go their separate ways, Talagi said in the witness box. He still had his hands on the bag with the gun, he explained, because he had just broken the zipper and he wanted to hold it closed.

Dariush Talagi is on trial for murder in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Supplied

Just when he thought the situation might have calmed down enough to walk away, he said, he was hit from behind with a “cheap shot” punch from Jekamiah Ah-Fook then “rag-dolled” to the ground, slamming his head against the pavement.

“He was throwing punch after punch after punch, just repeatedly,” the defendant recalled.

Around that same time Bobby Boon-Harris, his partner’s brother, rolled up on his scooter and was immediately punched to the ground by another member of the group. Talagi said he didn’t see his close friend getting punched but saw him slam his head on the ground and feared for the other man’s life.

Bobby Boon-Harris had endured a brain bleed following a rugby accident in 2018 and Talagi said he had long ago been told that if he incurred another blow to his head it could be fatal.

Upon hearing the first gunshot - which resulted in the wounding of Jarome Alexander, who was kicking Talagi as he was on the ground - the defendant said he was confused and didn’t know what happened.

“I thought maybe someone fired a shot at me,” he said, suggesting in hindsight that the gun might have misfired as the other attacker grabbed at his bag.

“I’m getting punched left, right and centre. In my point of view, when the gunshots went off the attack became a lot more vicious.”

Then came the second gunshot, wounding Alexander again.

“I don’t even remember having the gun in my hand or getting out of the bag,” Talagi said. “I don’t recall shooting him. I was just getting punched and dropped on the floor.”

He said he also didn’t remember getting up in the seconds that followed. But he acknowledged the CCTV clearly showed the gun in his hands. He was still thinking about the safety of his pregnant partner and her disabled brother, he said, as he pulled his jacket over his face and approached Tuuholoaki, who was at that point crouching over a prone Bobby Boon-Harris.

“I remember seeing Sione on Bobby and I knew I had to get him off,” he said, explaining that he pulled his jacket up as padding in case he was sucker punched again.

“I don’t remember walking over to Sione and I don’t remember shooting. I just remember hearing a bang.”

The fourth and final shot, he acknowledged, was intentional. He described it as a warning shot at Ah-Fook, denying allegations that he was aiming directly at the other man but missed. The angle, as seen on the CCTV footage, was misleading, he insisted.

Afterwards, he said, he still didn’t realise Tuuholoaki had been shot but he saw the other man unconscious on the ground with blood and panicked. He hopped back on his Lime scooter and fled the scene, forgetting to stop even for his partner.

As they drove home, he stopped at a bridge and threw the gun into the water, he said.

When he read about what had happened on the internet, he said he decided to pack up his belongings and flee town because he was afraid of retribution.

“Keep safe and keep our baby safe,” he recalled telling his partner as he left.

Tiari Boon-Harris. Photo / Supplied

Talagi would remain on the run for over three months. His partner, jurors were told today, also avoided police for months and later pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact for helping Talagi to hide.

“I just didn’t want to live my life on the run,” he said of eventually turning himself in.

During the cross-examination that followed, McClintock suggested it made no sense that Talagi would have thought he had an unloaded starter pistol when he clearly pointed it at three people and pulled the trigger.

“This was all started that night by the throwing of insults, wasn’t it?” she asked, to which he said no. “The only person who says they didn’t hear anything that night was you.”

Talagi agreed with the prosecutor that he approached the group of his own free will and that he could have instead scooted away with his partner.

“It was clear from the beginning that they outnumbered you?” she asked.

He agreed.

“But you’re unconcerned about that because you ... know you had that gun available to you,” McClintock said, suggesting that the video showed him provoking the strangers.

This time he disagreed.

Referring to the CCTV, McClintock suggested that Talagi never saw Bobby Boon-Harris hit the ground but was now making up a story about being fearful of the other man’s safety after having viewed the footage multiple times.

“At that time you were very much interested in your own fight,” she said.

“I wasn’t in a fight,” the defendant responded. “I didn’t throw a single punch. I couldn’t have. I was reaching to hold the bag closed.”

McClintock also suggested Talagi pulled his jacket over his head not for padding but to hide his identity “because you knew at that point in time you were going to put a bullet in Mr Tuuholoaki‘s head”.

“That makes no sense,” he responded. “I’ve been around town the whole night. My face is everywhere.”

McClintock finished her questioning with an accusation: “You intended everything you did that night.”

“So I intended to get attacked?” Talagi responded. “No. That’s incorrect.”

The trial is set to resume on Monday before Justice Mathew Downs and the jury.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.