The father of murdered Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua told the High Court at Wellington how he tried in a panic to get to a phone to call for an ambulance after his daughter was shot in a drive-by shooting.
The court had been told the shooting on May 5, 2007, was the result of several confrontations that day between members of the Mongrel Mob and Black Power gangs.
Hayden John Wallace, 27, Karl Unuka Check, 26, Ranji Tane Forbes, 21, Godfrey Thomas Muraahi, 27, Erueti Chase Nahona, 20, and Richard Anthony Puohotaua, 28, are on trial for the two-year-old's murder.
Luke John Check, 24, is charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges .
Jhia's father, patched Black Power member Joshua Te Tua, said he knew Mob members would be coming to his home that night because of the previous altercations, so brought in "protection" from his own gang.
About 15 Black Power members were at his house when three vehicles silently, without lights, glided up to his house on Puriri Street in the suburb of Gonville, just before 10pm.
Crown lawyer Grant Burston alleged a prospective gang member, Wallace, was the person who fired three shots into the property.
One of the bullets went through the lounge window, through a couch and into the sleeping two-year-old, killing her instantly.
Mr Te Tua said after the shooting he took his daughter and tried to jump the fence to the neighbour's to get to a phone to call an ambulance.
"(But) I knew she was dead," he said, visibly emotional.
Under cross examination by Karl Check's lawyer Greg King, Mr Te Tua denied bringing the other gang members to his house for a fight.
"You bring as many people as you can to a rumble, don't you?" Mr King asked.
"It was to protect my house," Mr Te Tua replied.
Earlier today Jhia's mother, Ria Gardiner, broke down as she described to the court the moment she realised her daughter was dead.
Before the shooting incident Mob members had gone to the Te Tua home in cars which had been pelted with bricks, stones and rocks by Black Power - breaking the windscreen of one of them.
After that confrontation Ms Gardiner said she rearranged the furniture in the lounge to put Jhia to sleep as Jhia's bed was level to the window in her own room and she did not think Jhia would be safe.
She told the court that just before 10pm she received a phone call from her friend who told her three cars had just silently pulled up outside her home.
"It raised the alarm for me."
Ms Gardiner said she had meant to put Jhia on a mattress on the floor rather than leave her on the couch, but was distracted by the news of the cars and was trying to attract the attention of her partner and his friends, who were outside.
Shots were fired and Ms Gardiner said she dived onto the floor and pulled Jhia off the couch.
She said "thick liquid" was just pouring out of her.
Ms Gardiner said she continued holding Jhia until the shots stopped.
Mr Burston asked Ms Gardiner if Jhia was alive at that stage.
Through tears, Ms Gardiner said she could see her daughter was dead.
"I sat on the back doorstep. I held my baby, but she was already gone."
The trial is before Justice Warwick Gendall.
The Crown plans to call about 120 witnesses during the trial which is expected to last about five weeks in front of a jury of six men and six women.
