BY his own admission, Dwayne Eric Welsh was “f---ed up on ice” when he fired a shotgun out of the passenger side window of a stolen car during a wild police pursuit at Belmont North in April.
“Just, we couldn't get away and I was, yeah, I was in a f---ed up state,” Welsh told police after his arrest. “Uh, I didn't want to go to jail. I didn't want to get caught, so I let a shotgun go in the air.”
Welsh, 37, of Woodberry, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from Goulburn Correctional Centre where he pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with intent to resist arrest, aggravated break and enter and stealing a motor vehicle.
He will be sentenced in Newcastle District Court next year. Welsh had stolen the red Holden Commodore from outside a unit at Kurri Kurri the night before the pursuit through Belmont North on April 19 this year.
At 3.30am, a police officer saw the red Commodore and a white Commodore driving along the Pacific Highway before both vehicles slammed on their brakes and turned left in Dalrymple Street before veering into Old Belmont Road.
The police officer followed and attempted to pull over the red Commodore but it sped away, heading back out onto the Pacific Highway and launching over the median strip.
The police officer stuck with the car and gave chase as the red Commodore reached speeds of between 100km/h and 120km/h in the approach to Violet Town Road. It was then that Welsh, seated in the passenger seat of the red Commodore, pointed a shotgun out the window and discharged the gun straight into the air.
Welsh later told police he did not aim the gun at the police vehicle and his intention was to put a stop to the pursuit.
And it had the desired effect; the police officer terminated the chase and the Commodore driver got away.
The car was later found burnt out at Glendale.
Meanwhile, Welsh, who was described as "sweating and off his guts", went to a home at Speers Point where he hid in the roof.
He later jumped from a car at Edgeworth and ran into bushland. He was found the next day stumbling around and wearing only boxer shorts. When he was arrested, Welsh admitted to firing the shotgun and said he was significantly drug affected at the time.
