The officer in charge of the Port Chalmers police station in 1990 was Sergeant Stewart Guthrie, a good local copper whose heart was set firmly on doing his best for the town, as a policeman and a community leader.
"He was the sort of guy who could participate in community affairs, be totally accepted by the people and still not lose the necessary credibility that a police officer needs to have," his friend John Medder told the Herald's Bernard Orsman a few days after Guthrie lost his life while doing his duty in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances imaginable.
On the afternoon of November 12 Guthrie received a call to say that a gunman had run amok in the small settlement of Aramoana, about seven kilometres northeast, near the mouth of Otago Harbour.
He knew who the man was - David Gray, a loner with a history of mental illness - and, arming himself with a police issue .38 revolver, set out for the scene of the crime.
When Guthrie arrived, he and an off-duty constable carrying a borrowed rifle moved cautiously through the town to assess what was needed to contain the gunman and get help to the wounded.
