Wearing a black face covering, the man pointed the gun at the victim, yelling "f... off or I’ll shoot you", a court heard.
In the Gore District Court yesterday, Dale Joseph Hick, 44, defended three charges related to the May incident.
At the conclusion of a judge-alone trial, he was found guilty of assault with a weapon, threatening to kill and presenting a firearm.
He pleaded guilty to possessing a .22 calibre shotgun and five rounds of ammunition.
The defendant was initially charged with possession of cannabis and drug utensils, but those charges were dismissed in court due to a lack of evidence.
The victim said on May 6 he had been driving around Gore until about 11.30pm, when he parked his car in the Gull petrol station forecourt, crossing Fairfield St on foot.
He told the court he had run out of petrol, had no money and planned to walk to his friend’s house and retrieve his car in the morning.
As he was crossing, Hick stepped out of the passenger’s side of a red van and pointed a gun at him, threatening to shoot him.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Penny Stratford asked the victim where the gun was pointed, to which the victim replied "at my head".
She asked him what he was looking at, he said "the barrel".
Initially 2m-3m away from Hick, the man backed away from his attacker across the road, and drove his car to the McDonald’s.
"To be closer to a camera," he said.
He then went to the police.
Defence counsel Jono Ross argued the victim was behaving erratically, shouting he had no petrol and flailing his arms in a manner that caused Hick to feel threatened.
The victim denied this.
Sergeant Christopher Dunbar then told the court he was on call in Invercargill that night when he was alerted to the incident.
Just after midnight, on his way to Gore, he came across a red people mover near the Edendale roundabout, which he signalled to pull over.
A woman was driving with Hick in the passenger seat, and when asked what they had been up to, Hick replied that a "kid" at the McDonald’s was being a "d...".
Seeing the black face covering around Hick’s neck, he knew he had the right car, Sgt Dunbar said.
After stepping out of the vehicle, the defendant denied knowledge of the gun incident, and dropped his pants, undies and lifted his shirt to reveal he carried no weapons.
Sgt Dunbar said before he started a search of the car the defendant admitted there was a firearm in a black bag under the passenger seat.
Sgt Dunbar said later he found a wallet with $2900 in it, a cannabis grinder with the drug and a drug dealer’s "tick book" with words like "tabs" and "weed" written in it.
Officer-in-charge Constable Sarah Roxas said she forgot to have the grinder drug-tested and Judge Russell Walker dismissed the related charges.
Hick told the court he had bought the gun illegally that evening, as he feared for his safety due to family issues.
He feared the victim, who looked "big" in an oversized blanket hoodie, was an attacker related to those issues or the person who had sold him the gun.
He said he had $2900 cash as he did not know the $500 price of the firearm, and he had won that money through playing "pokies".
He provided a personal bank statement showing a "Visa money transfer" of $3000, which had "pokies win" handwritten on it by the defendant.
Judge Walker said he found the victim’s evidence credible, while Hick’s evidence stretched credibility "beyond belief".
"The thrust of your evidence was that you were trying to protect yourself by putting yourself in harm’s way," he said.
That explanation did not make sense, he said.
Hick will be sentenced in November.
