A man who shot dead a police constable in West Auckland last year has been found guilty of attempting to murder another officer during the armed rampage.

The jury has also decided to convict the woman who drove him away from the rampage, despite claims from her lawyers that she was actually a good Samaritan only trying to prevent a "bloodbath" of police colleagues about to be ambushed as they rushed to the scene.

Eli Bob Sauni Epiha, 25, was found guilty of the attempted murder of Constable David Goldfinch after 11 and a half hours of deliberation over two days following nearly two weeks of testimony. In a somewhat unusual step, Epiha pleaded guilty to the murder of Goldfinch's partner, Constable Matthew Hunt, several days before his trial began.

Co-defendant Natalie Jane Bracken, 31, was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to wounding Hunt with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. She started the trial charged with accessory after the fact to murder, but her lawyers successfully argued to the judge that Hunt hadn't been officially declared dead yet when she drove Epiha from the scene.

Natalie Jane Bracken. Photo / Brett Phibbs

"Love you, Eli" a supporter yelled out as he was led out of the courtroom.

Justice Geoffrey Venning is set to sentence Epiha for both crimes — as well as for his guilty plea to dangerous driving resulting in the injury of a bystander that same morning — on October 1. Epiha indicated before his trial began that'll he'll argue at sentencing that Hunt's murder was the result of recklessness rather than murderous intent. But the jury's guilty verdict means it's been proven he had murderous intent when shooting at Goldfinch, who was hit by four bullets but survived.

Constable Hunt was the 33rd New Zealand police officer to be killed in the line of duty when Epiha shot him four times with a military-style semi-automatic rifle in Massey on 19 June 2020.

Constable Matthew Hunt. Photo / Supplied

Epiha, who testified on his own behalf during the trial, claimed he had just received the gun that morning and was en route to his brother's house to scare off gang members when the police officers decided to pull him over.

Driving fast through residential Reynella Drive in an attempt to evade the officers, he ended up swerving to miss hitting a rubbish truck and instead crashed into a parked car, injuring the bystander who was loading his vehicle ahead of a weekend trip to Rotorua.

Witnesses have given slightly varying accounts of the mayhem that followed, but it was uncontested that Epiha is the one who fired 14 shots that day — hitting each officer four times. Constable Goldfinch told jurors he tried to reason with the gunman that day.

Constable David Goldfinch. Photo / TVNZ (pool)

"I put up my hands again and went, 'Just f***ing stop. Just f***ing walk away. I won't arrest you,'" he testified. "I saw him almost contemplating what I said to him. After a few seconds, he just like made a decision: 'I'm going to kill you.'"

Bracken declined to testify during the trial, but in an interview with police on the day of her arrest that was played for jurors, she said she was afraid she would be shot next. When she first ran outside she tried to help the injured bystander, others testified.

Driving Epiha away from the neighbourhood, she told police, was also her way of trying to help.

Both defendants said they did not know each other prior to that day.