User:Dramatic/List of New Zealand police officers killed in the line of duty

This is a list of New Zealand Police officers killed in the line of duty. As of 2008, 28 police officers have been killed by criminal act, and about 17 have died from accidental causes, during the execution of duty. There has been one instance of multiple police deaths, when Stanley Graham gunned down four officers attempting to apprehend him in 1941, and four double fatalities. Most of the homicides have been a result of gunshot wounds, the accidents mainly due to either drowning or vehicle (car/aircraft) accidents.

A slain officer may receive a police funeral, including an honour guard and flag-draped casket, and be officially mourned in the New Zealand House of Representatives. At least four officers have received posthumous honours — Sergeant Stewart Guthrie received the highest Commonwealth civilian decoration, the George Cross. The Lou Grant Award was created in the memory of the police sergeant who died in the 1993 Eagle helicopter mid-air collision, awarded every second year for excellence and contributions to search and rescue.

The Memorial Wall at The Royal New Zealand Police College lists the names of fallen colleagues, whom the service commemorates annually on Police Remembrance Day. The Police Association together with the New Zealand Police introduced a Police Remembrance Day Pin in 2007, for officers to wear to honour the memory of those slain during the course of duty. The pin combines a Huia tail feather with a police chevron; the Huia bird was sacred in Māori culture, wearing of its feathers restricted to people of high status.

In addition to the human officers, at least twenty police dogs have died in the line of duty; notably the drowning of Enzo in August 2007, which resulted in fourteen months jail for Tairyn Murphy.

Officers killed by criminal act
Since 1 September 1886.

Constable Neil McLeod
right Badge number 91. Aged 44.

Shot, 30 July 1890, at Mangawhare wharf, Dargaville
 * Gum-digger Henry Funcke was removed from a steamer and had his rifle confiscated. He became angry and drew a concealed pistol, firing several shots at the departing ship, one of which stuck McLeod, who was a passenger, in the chest. Funcke was not convicted, being acquitted on the grounds of insanity.

Sergeant John Patrick Hackett McGuire
Badge number 674. Aged 42.

Died of gunshot wounds, 14 April 1914, at Palmerston North


 * McGuire was shot in the stomach during a manhunt, and died four days later. John Joseph Powelka was acquitted of murder but received 21 cumulative years for seven charges of burglary.

Constable John Doyle
right Badge number 963, Aged 35. Died following assault, 5 February 1913, at Shannon
 * Died in hospital two days after being assaulted by two men in the Albany Hotel, Shannon. His assailant, Peter MacDonald, was later sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for causing grievous bodily harm.

Constable Vivian Dudding
right Badge number 2030, aged 32.

Died of Gunshot wounds, 6 October 1919, Wellington.
 * Attending a domestic dispute in Thorndon, Wellington, he was shot in the head and died an hour later. His killer, Alexander Aspin, shot himself the same night.

Constable James Dorgan
rightBadge number 1764, aged 27. Shot on 27 August 1927, Timaru
 * Constable Dorgan was investigating a break-in at a shop and was shot four times, dying at the scene. His killer was never found.

Constable Thomas Heeps
right Badge number 1582, aged 50. Died of gunshot wounds, 21 October 1934, Waikato.
 * Constable Heeps died in Waikato Hospital after being shot twice by Henare Hona, the subject of a manhunt near Otorohanga. Hona, wanted for the murder of four people, later shot himself when surrounded by police.

8 October 1941
Shot by farmer Stanley Graham, who they were attempting to apprehend after he refused to surrender firearms at Koiterangi (now Kowhitirangi) near Hokitika. Two civilians were also killed in Graham's spree, and a fourth died 18 months later as a result of injuries. After a 12 day manhunt involving 300 police and soldiers, Graham was shot and died in hospital.

Traffic Officer John Kehoe
rightBadge number 36. Aged 24 Shot on 31 January 1949 near Whakatane
 * Kehoe was Shot four times by Richard Angus McGill, who he had pursued and stopped for speeding with his motorcycle. McGill then comitted suicide in an orchard in nearby Awakeri, but his body was not found for a week.

Sergeant William Shore Hughes
right Badge number 2691. Aged 48 Shot on 27 May 1951 at Otaki
 * Sergeant Hughes was shot dead during a domestic dispute by Noema Raana Rika.