A driver hit two New Zealand police officers while patrolling on foot in the early hours of the New Year, killing one and seriously injuring the other, the country’s police chief said.
The attack shook a country where killings of on-duty police officers are rare. Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming was the first female officer in New Zealand history killed by foul play while on duty, police said on Thursday.
In Wednesday’s attack, the vehicle hit the officers “at high speed” while they were on a routine patrol in a parking lot, before the driver turned around and crashed into a police car, the police said. Police Commissioner Richard Chambers to reporters in the South Island town of Nelson. Fleming died at a local hospital a few hours later.
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A 32-year-old man was arrested shortly after the incident, around 2 a.m. local time. He was charged with eight counts, including murder, attempted murder, assault using a vehicle as a weapon and driving without a license.
The other officer struck by the car was in serious condition but is expected to make a full recovery, Chambers said. A third officer who was in the rammed police car suffered a concussion and two members of the public were injured, one after coming to help the injured officers.
Chambers condemned “the senseless act of an individual who appears to have been determined to cause harm”, although he did not suggest a motive.
“There was, at that point, no indication of what was going to happen,” Chambers said.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told reporters the officers had been “targeted in what I consider to be a very cowardly attack”. It was a “devastating day” for the police and for the country, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wrote on X.
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The attack happened in an area of Nelson’s inner city, home to 55,000 people, close to the street where New Year’s Eve celebrations had ended two hours earlier.
Before Wednesday, the last killing of a serving police officer in New Zealand was in 2020, when a police officer was shot dead by a fleeing driver. Thirty-three other officers have died as a result of criminal acts while on duty since 1890, according to police records.
Fleming was an officer for 38 years and a long-serving netball coach at a local girls’ high school.
“She is a mother, a wife and a well-known and well-respected member of the Nelson community,” Chambers said.
The man charged is due to appear in court on Friday. In New Zealand, a conviction for murder carries an automatic life sentence, with the presiding judge setting a non-parole period of at least 10 years.