"If I shot at them, I would have killed them."
In a video interview with Detective Sergeant Mike Ryder, which was recorded on the night of February 2 and played to a jury in a High Court trial at Timaru yesterday, Christopher Shaw said he had hunted all his life, had been shooting since he was 3 years old and "could have sniped every one of those cops".
He denied shooting at any police officers, saying he only fired a shot in the air when a helicopter was flying over.
"If I wanted to shoot the cops, you'd have dead cops."
Shaw said all he wanted to do was get his family to safety.
"I didn't want to hurt anybody. I've got no violence. I'm not violent, I don't believe in it. I don't shoot cops."
He said he would not "shoot a cop" and risk going to prison for 20 years.
Shaw said he and his partner, Stacey Snelleksz, did not want any trouble.
"We just wanted to go bush."
He said police had a "perfect opportunity" to arrest them "with no issues" in Oamaru, but waited until they were on the road. Police had then put the children's lives in danger, he said.
Shaw said CYF wanted to take Snelleksz's two young children and they "gapped it" for a holiday.
They ran out of money and needed to get nappies and milk powder, so he broke into a car. He got caught and was bailed to appear in court in Palmerston North. With no money to return to Palmerston North, it was "impossible".
While staying in Picton, they took a Land Rover, got as much camping gear as they could and "thought we'd go bush". They realised police were following when they left Repco in Oamaru.
While going past road spikes near Palmerston, Shaw said he pointed an empty .22 out the window at a police car, thinking that if he pointed a gun, police would "back off . . . and they'd never see us again".
"I said, back the... off, we've got kids in the car."
After Snelleksz crashed the vehicle, they jumped out, grabbed the children and "tried to run".
The two children, then aged 3 and 18 months, were "freezing" and had "literally [soiled] themselves" because of the accident, Shaw said.
