A man who shot a 15-year-old girl in a fit of road rage that continues to “haunt” the victims has been jailed for nine years.
Alfred Latu, 27, was this year found guilty of a shooting on May 16, 2023, that left a teen with two serious but ultimately non-fatal gunshot wounds.
In sentencing Latu today in the Auckland District Court, Judge Stephen Bonnar, KC, said the victims have suffered “psychological scars” that are likely to be with them for the rest of their lives.
“It is a matter of pure dumb luck that you are not now facing a sentence of life imprisonment,” Bonnar said.
“The bullet was a matter of centimetres from her heart.”
The teen who was shot said in her victim impact statement: “My world was forever changed … in a way it could only exist in a movie.”
Her injuries from the shooting have left her unable to play sport, “which is what [she] loves doing”.
She has also had to move schools after the shooting in the hope of getting a “fresh start”.
“I no longer feel fully safe in a car … scanning my surroundings … no one should have to experience that terror.”
Her mother was also in the van that night, and in her own victim impact statement described the enduring trauma of that night on her family.
“The trauma when my daughter was shot, not once but twice, will haunt me for the rest of my life,” she said.
“Any mention of road rage triggers me. It is only by some miracle that this incident did not end in tragedy.”
Police prosecutor Conrad Purdon argued for a starting point of 10 years’ jail for Latu. His defence lawyer, Jen Holden, argued for a starting point of eight to nine years.
Latu was on bail when he committed the shooting and told his probation officer he was high on drugs at the time of the incident.
Judge Bonnar said there could be “no room for any doubt” in his sentence that using a firearm for a minor traffic incident is completely unacceptable.
“You went out in your car with a loaded pistol,” the judge said.
He described the incident as demonstrating “extreme violence” with a “potentially fatal” outcome. The victims were “inherently vulnerable” Judge Bonnar said. He also noted Latu has continued to deny he was the shooter.
Judge Bonnar took a starting point of 10 years in prison for sentencing.
He applied a reduction of 10% from the starting point for Latu’s difficult background and upbringing. For his rehabilitative non-violence efforts, he applied a 5% reduction.
He applied a six-month uplift from previous offences in which Latu did not complete the sentence, and the fact that he was on bail at the time of the shooting.
Latu was sentenced for unlawful possession of a firearm, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and causing injuries with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Judge Bonnar said the defendant had a propensity to violence and substance abuse. His risk of reoffending was judged at a high level. However, he also noted Latu’s difficult past, having lost one brother to homicide and another to suicide.
A friend of Latu’s who was a passenger, Hillpark resident Sione Ngata, 28, who helped cover up the shooting, was sentenced in September to two months of community detention.
Ngata avoided the trial with last-minute guilty pleas to two less serious charges: possession of ammunition and being an accessory after the fact to discharging a weapon with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He faced a maximum five-year sentence as he appeared without his co-defendant before Judge Nevin Dawson in September.
The seemingly random and shocking shooting attracted widespread media coverage two years ago as police announced a manhunt and said it was only with “some luck” that they weren’t conducting a murder investigation.
Court documents, now public for the first time, outline how the shooting was preceded by anger over a common driving manoeuvre on Auckland’s Southern Motorway.
The victim was one of four passengers in a Mazda Premacy people-mover van driven by her father when the vehicle entered the northbound Mt Wellington onramp about 10pm on May 16, 2023.
As it entered the motorway, the van overtook a Mazda Axela driven by Latu before returning to the slow lane, according to the police summary of facts agreed to by Ngata only.
“This angered Mr Latu, who overtook the complainants in their vehicle, changed back into the far-left lane and heavily braked, forcing the complainants to take evasive action,” court documents state. “This action is commonly referred to as ‘brake-checking’.”
Latu then pulled his car up alongside the van and side-swiped it, causing moderate damage, witnesses told police. The defendants also threw a can at the van, gesturing and yelling for the other driver to pull over, court documents state.
The van tried to accelerate away while one of the occupants called 111, but Latu – with Ngata in the front passenger seat and an unidentified person in the back seat – continued to follow and taunt, the summary of facts states. He continued to brake-check and “drive extremely close” to the van until it exited the motorway at St Lukes Rd, authorities said.
As the chase continued into Mt Albert, Latu held a Glock 9mm pistol out the driver’s side window and fired, shattering the rear window of the van, documents state. The teen girl’s mum, also a passenger in the van, recorded the shooting. Two more shots were fired.
The teen victim received gunshot wounds to her chest, just above her heart, and in her right thigh. Another female passenger received bruising on her lower back but was lucky – that bullet was slowed by the back seat she was leaning against.
“In a desperate attempt to escape, the complainants drove their vehicle across the centre grass median on to the incorrect side of the road,” court documents state. “Mr Latu abandoned the pursuit, and the complainants fled.”
The victims parked at a Z service station in Sandringham, about 12km from where the on-ramp confrontation had started, and waited for emergency responders to arrive.
Police executed a search warrant at Ngata’s South Auckland home the following night and found the car his co-defendant had been driving outside with the registration plates and warrant of fitness removed.
The plates were found in Ngata’s garage, with his fingerprints on them. The warrant of fitness sticker was found in his bedroom.
During the bedroom search, police also found one 9mm bullet and one shell.
“In explanation, the defendant Mr Ngata said he was a passenger in the vehicle and offered no explanation to the shots being fired,” the summary of facts states. “However, [he] complained that the complainant’s vehicle deliberately rammed their vehicle at least twice.”
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.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.