Victim tells alleged shooter to be ‘own’

The victim of a shooting in Wellington last year has told the woman accused of being the gunman that she must be ‘owned’.

Supreme Court testimony in a trial before a sitting judge, Delray Enoka, watched as attorney Ian Hard approached his client Meretiana Jacquiline Kopua in the dock.

“Own it,” said Enoka, looking in Kopua’s direction.

Kopua, 33, has pleaded not guilty to charges of willful grievous bodily harm, grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard for the safety of others, and unlawful possession of firearms, after a shooting in the Vogeltown suburb of Wellington on July 25 last year.

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Enoka said she attended her son’s 21st birthday party. He was a member of the Mongrel Mob, as were some of the other people at the party. She didn’t sleep that night.

The next morning, Kopua, whom Enoka only knew as Meregirl, appeared in a car with two other people.

The history between the two women was confused.

Enoka said some time earlier that her car was missing and she was told that Kopua had it, although Kopua denied it.

When Kopua showed up the morning after the party, Enoka was told that she and another woman wanted to take the car of one of Enoka’s friends. Enoka said she didn’t know why they wanted the car.

Enoka said she apologized to Kopua for an earlier incident when Enoka and her sister went to Kopua’s house and “a little drama happened.” Enoka said she didn’t know that Kopua’s baby was in the house at the time, and they don’t do that kind of thing with babies.

Enoka said another car arrived, Kopua and another woman went to the trunk of the car, and something cleared Enoka’s stomach, then she was shot in the stomach. She saw Kopua with a long rifle.

Harsh suggested to her that after drinking and drinking methamphetamine and without sleeping, she didn’t know who shot her. “Do you think I would just blame anyone? My memory is fine,” she says.

The court was told that bullet fragments could not be removed from Enoka. The injury resulted in 12 inches of bowel and gallons of blood being removed from her abdomen.

Kopua gave proof. She said she didn’t know Enoka and never spoke to her.

Kopua was looking for another woman who owed her about $1100.

She agreed to send a text saying she needed a “banger.” Banger was referring to a friend of her brother’s, she said.

She said she was raised on the “opposite side” of the Mongrel Mob, and dramas involving them were nothing new.

She was walking away when she heard some kind of pop-pop sound. She went back to the house and saw someone on the ground, but didn’t know they had been shot.

After cross-examination, she admitted that there had been a previous incident when Enoka and another woman arrived at her home. A window was broken and her brother was hit in the head, she said.

When Enoka apologized for it after the party, she apologized to Kopua’s aunt, not Kopua.

Only later did she realize that Enoka was one of the women who had come to her house and caused trouble.

She denied the lyric about needing a “banger” that referred to a firearm.

She denied shooting Enoka.

“I’m innocent and I want to be able to explain that.”

Kopua’s trial continues on Thursday.