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A civilian shot with three police officers on Napier Hill yesterday was "clearly a very brave man", Police Commissioner Howard Broad says.
Police have said the man attempted to disarm Jan Molenaar as he shot at police officers. Senior Constable Len Snee, 53, was shot dead at the property on Chaucer Rd about 9.30am.
Superintendent Sam Hoyle said the man was at the address at the time of the search.
"He has behaved quite heroically in trying to stop the offender shooting the police officers,' Mr Hoyle told NewstalkZB.
Mr Hoyle said police were not yet sure of the exact relationship between the man and Mr Molenaar as he was still too ill to be interviewed.
Mr Broad did not want to go into details, but said: "I do know from the briefings I have had, that he was clearly a very brave man and more will be said about that in the fullness of time," Mr Broad told Radio Live.
Mr Snee, of Taradale police, was killed about 9.30am while conducting an apparent low-risk cannabis operation at the Napier Hill property.
The civilian, a neighbour of the gunman, Senior Constable Bruce Miller, 40, a community constable in the suburb of Ahuriri, dog handler Senior Constable Grant Diver, 50, were wounded by gunshots.
All were in a critical condition in Hawke's Bay Hospital's intensive care unit.
It was reported that Mr Miller was shot in the stomach, and in an induced coma. Members of the public had tried to help Mr Miller.
Mr Diver was able to crawl to a neighbour's house to raise the alarm.
Mr Broad said he was "quite confident" all three would survive, but he did not intend to second guess medical experts.
While police were upset they had been unable to recover Mr Snee's body from where it lay alongside his patrol car, that would not affect their decision-making.
Mr Molenaar, a 51-year-old former territorial army member, has been firing a high-powered rifle sporadically at police officers surrounding the house.
"This is quite a dangerous situation that we are dealing with. Public safety is absolutely our highest priority," Mr Broad said.
Attempts to reach Mr Snee had been thwarted when police were driven off by gunfire, which leaves us "fairly distressed".
"There is a large group of very dedicated and skilled staff who will endeavour to bring this incident to a close safely for everyone concerned, and they'll do it as fast as they can commensurate to the risk which is present."
Morale had been helped by the many gifts and messages left at Napier police station, and offers by Air New Zealand to help fly reinforcements into the city, he said.
- NZPA
