Men who allegedly chased Aboriginal family armed with shotgun just trying to help, court hears
TWO men accused of chasing down an Aboriginal family in their ute armed with a shotgun were actually good Samaritans intervening in a domestic dispute, a court has heard
Police & Courts
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TWO men accused of chasing down an Aboriginal family in their ute armed with a shotgun were actually good Samaritans intervening in a domestic dispute, a court has heard.
Jayden Harmes, 19 and Benjamin Wright, 31, each pleaded not guilty in the Darwin Local Court to recklessly endangering serious harm and discharging a firearm to frighten, endanger or annoy.
The court heard the two groups crossed paths at the Heartbreak Hotel southwest of Borroloola on August 6 last year.
In giving evidence on Friday, station hand Thomas Brierley, who was a colleague of Harmes’ and sitting in the back seat of Wright’s ute during the chase, told the court the trio “heard a lady in distress”.
“She just sounded like she was in danger, like she was being hurt,” he said.
“We just wanted to make sure she was alright, make sure that nothing bad happened.”
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Mr Brierley said the group followed the woman, Lisa Watson, and her partner, Sean Fitzpatrick, as they drove off in their car and gave chase.
“Ben flashed them to try to pull them over and then I think we did overtake them and we went in front of them and pulled them up by braking, hitting the brake,” he said.
“We all proceeded to get out of Ben’s ute and try and see what was going on and make sure that everyone was alright.”
Mr Brierley said Harmes went to check on Ms Watson and he and Wright walked towards the driver’s side door to stop Mr Fitzpatrick from “taking off” but he tripped and the other car drove away.
“We all jumped back in Ben’s ute and proceeded to chase them down,” he said.
“We flashed them again and got up alongside them and then as we got up alongside them they hit the brakes and then they must have turned around and I jumped out because I wanted to go to the toilet.
“I got yelled at to get back in the ute and by the time got back in the ute they were out of sight so I jumped back in and we just sort of drove back.”
Mr Brierley testified that no one in the car had a gun but prosecutor Nam Long Ha was granted leave to cross examine him on that point as it was “inconsistent with the preponderance of the evidence” so far.
Mr Ha suggested the situation “got out of hand” and Harmes fired the gun in the air.
“When Mr Harmes finally discharged the firearm, all three of you said ‘This has gone too far’ and turned back’,” he said.
But Mr Brierley maintained there was no gun.
In body-worn footage played to the court, Ms Watson is heard telling police she believed the incident appeared to be a “racist, targeted attack”.
“We saw the shotgun hanging out the window and we heard the shotgun when they shot it,” she said.
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Judge Therese Austin will hand down her ruling at a later date.
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