In future with each new year, many in the wider Police family will remember 2.10am on January 1 – when a vehicle was driven at speed into several police officers who were on foot patrol in central Nelson, injuring three of them.

Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming died less than 12 hours later – becoming New Zealand’s first female police officer killed in the line of duty and the first officer in Nelson. Her colleague, Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay, was seriously injured and another officer was concussed.

The driver of the vehicle was tasered and arrested at the scene. He faces eight charges including murder and attempted murder and was due to appear in court on February 14.

Commissioner Richard Chambers, in announcing Lyn’s death on the afternoon of January 1, labelled it a “tragic, senseless, unprovoked” attack.

“It is the worst it gets as a leader in the New Zealand Police,” Tasman District Commander Superintendent Tracey Thompson told Police News three weeks after the horrific incident. “The thing that worries leaders the most is their staff not going home after their shift.” Police Association president Chris Cahill says everyone in Police was “rocked” by Lyn’s death. She was a widely respected police officer with 38 years’ frontline service.

“It really affects them and their families feel it too,” he says. “Police officers go to work every day and know there’s risk, but I don’t think anyone can really prepare for someone using a motor vehicle as a weapon like this.”

An unimaginable act

Police could easily have lost more officers early that morning, Tracey says.

“We’re extremely grateful that more police were not more seriously hurt and members of the community as well, because there was potential for that to happen. Those Police staff who were there [on January 1] and how they handled the initial response were astounding. We’re also extremely grateful that we still have Adam.” 

Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay, who has been in Police 16 years, was critically injured in the incident but is recovering extremely well, Tracey says, and itching to get back to work.

“I am genuinely in awe of all our staff after having had such a tragic event happen. Policing doesn’t stop, we’ve still had to respond to calls for service, we’ve still been approached by our community members on the street, and we still have to do our work.”

Nelson staff helped plan Lyn’s funeral, which included full Police honours with the permission of her family. It was a scale of which they’ve never seen in Nelson, Tracey says. Lyn was the first police officer to be killed in the line of duty in Nelson.

“So there was a lot of work to be done and tasks on the day they were unfamiliar with. No one had ever been in a flag party or knew what a casket party did, nobody had really done the haka before. But everybody just stepped outside of their comfort zones because they wanted to do the right thing by Lyn and Adam… to ensure that Lyn had the best ever farewell that we could give her.”

Grief and support

Tracey’s focus has now moved to ensuring her staff have the support they need for as long as they need it. Lyn’s farewell has been held but it doesn’t mean everybody is going to be OK.

“People are going to grieve at different times so we have to make sure that, from a deployment perspective, we have got staff in place. It’s about transitioning back to what a new normal might be for us, understanding that this year is going to be a year of firsts for us.

“There’ll be a ceremony for a plaque to be put on the Memorial Wall for Lyn, we’ve got the ongoing court case that we are overseeing, we’ve got Remembrance Day and then working our way towards the new year… We are going to know every New Year’s Day what happened and it’s going to be sad for us all, because it’ll bring it all back… So it’s going to be a year of ups and downs. That’s why it’s really important to maintain a long welfare plan. It is going to span a good 12 months, I’d say.”

Tracey cannot speak highly enough of the support Tasman has had from other districts to ensure her staff have had the space and means to grieve at their own pace.

“Early on, I made it really clear that I didn’t want to hear that any Tasman District staff couldn’t go to the funeral because they had to work… for that to happen here, we had to seek support from around the country. Around 55 staff came in to enable our people to do that. It was just amazing, and it was something that was really appreciated by the local staff.

“We’ve still got staff from outside of district, supporting our frontline, PST, our investigations team and our prevention teams. We’ve also had the national critical incident support teams and the wellness team come in. They’ve been on the ground continuing to support the reintegration of our staff, especially those who had to witness and deal with this.” 

The reintegration team bespoked their work for Tasman because Lyn was the first officer killed on duty since the programme was implemented.

“It’s going to have a long tail for our people, particularly the significance of the day. But I’m hearing lots of really encouraging ideas from staff about how we can… remember Lyn and all that she was and all that she gave us, rather than remembering that it was the day that she left us.

“We’ll never forget her, and she’ll always have a presence at Nelson station.”

What happens next?

A number of reviews yet to be completed will reveal if there are lessons to be learnt from the circumstances around Lyn’s death. 

Meanwhile, Tasman District criminal investigations manager Detective Inspector Lex Bruning is leading Operation Sabine, the investigation into the incident that killed Lyn and critically injured Adam.

“I think that’s what makes Police quite unique,” Tracey says. “It’s our people who have to investigate the death of their colleague, and it’s hard for them. But that brings out the professionalism in them.”