ONE moment Richard West was borrowing Josef Cruickshank's mobile phone, the next he was trying to save his life.

Broken down near a semi-rural property in Orangeville, on the edge of south-western Sydney, Mr West had gone to a house and knocked, hoping to find somebody home.

He was in luck. Two 14-year-old boys, Josef and the friend who has since been charged with his death, answered the door.

"[The boys] appeared in good spirits and happy," a police document tendered in the accused boy's hearing at Campbelltown Children's Court yesterday said.

That boy is accused of killing Josef with an unregistered pump-action shotgun just after 10pm on December 6.

Mr West called his wife, then returned to his car to wait, the document said. But minutes later he heard a loud bang, quickly followed by a male voice yelling, "I have just shot my mate. I've just shot my mate. Can you help?"

Mr West ran into the house and up a flight of stairs to a bedroom, where he found Josef unconscious, barely alive with a shotgun wound to his head. The accused was already speaking to a triple-0 operator.

The pair performed CPR for about 20 minutes, until ambulance officers arrived and said Josef was dead. "I turned around and it just went off, and I shot him in the face," the accused is alleged to have told police.

Josef's mother, Rosemary Ferraro, attended the hearing, as did the mother of the accused. Ms Ferraro did not comment outside court yesterday, but has previously said the accused had not intended to kill Josef and that she did not want another young life destroyed.

The boy is due to next appear at the same court on March 2.