On October 9, 1934, four adult members of the Davenport family were murdered near Te Kūiti and their house set alight. Twenty-year-old Henare Hona was suspected of the murders and arson.

On October 20, Constable Heeps, 50, headed out to a farm at Tatuanui, near Morrinsville, where a man matching Hona’s description had recently been employed.

After checking for notable features, including several missing teeth and a little finger with a missing tip, Constable Heeps surmised that the farmhand there was indeed Hona and he attempted to arrest him.

The manager of the farm, James Downs, described to the local newspaper what happened next: “Up to this point there was nothing in the man’s demeanour to suggest anything untoward. The next moment, [Hona] bent down, pulled a .32 calibre revolver from a suitcase, turned quickly and fired two shots. One hit Constable Heeps [side on] over the left temple and the other lodged in his arm. Constable Heeps dropped where he had been standing.”

The police officer was rushed to Waikato Hospital for emergency surgery to the bullet wound in his head but died the following day.

That night, armed police from Auckland and Waikato were joined by scores of farmers, also armed, to hunt for the shooter. Hona was spotted the next morning hiding in a drainage ditch. Finding himself surrounded, Hona shot himself in the head. He was taken to Waikato Hospital but died about 20 minutes after Constable Heeps.

More than 800 people attended Constable Heeps’ funeral. The Scotsman was remembered as “a most humane man”. The Matamata Record described the constable as “a courageous man [who] often took risks himself in order to lessen the danger for others”.

In a tribute to the bravery of Thomas Heeps at a church service on the night he died, Bishop Cherrington expressed what many others thought of police: “On such an occasion as this we realise more than before the debt we owe to those who perform difficult and dangerous tasks to preserve us in safety and to keep the peace of the realm.”