Napier shooting: Gunman's house a booby-trapped 'stronghold'

The birdcage containing Lenny Holmwood's budgie and finches. Photo / Richard Robinson

Lenny Holmwood wrestled with gunman Jan Molenaar, helped two wounded policemen to escape, took a bullet himself and crawled to safety - then started worrying about his cat Scrappy.

The 44-year-old lives alone with the cat, and after he was shot sent a text to a friend saying, "Jan busted. 3 cops shot. Me leg. Can you feed Scrappy."

It was an action typical of the man universally described yesterday as someone "who always puts others first".

Last night, he remained in hospital in a critical condition.

Mr Holmwood was known as "a trooper of a worker", but he was not working at the time of Thursday's shooting because he was just about to take up a new job with lifeguards at Napier's Ocean Spa pool complex.

He and Molenaar had been friends for years, and on Thursday morning Mr Holmwood was at Molenaar's house in Chaucer Rd, Napier, when his friend opened fire on Senior Constables Len Snee, Grant Diver and Bruce Miller.

Police say he tried to wrestle the weapon from the gunman and distracted him, enabling Mr Miller and Mr Diver to crawl away.

Police Commissioner Howard Broad described his actions as those of "a very brave man" who "took a bullet in the backside for his troubles".

Witnesses described seeing a man, believed to be Mr Holmwood, crawling across the road with dust flying up as bullets struck around him.

Two armed offenders squad officers rescued him, running with the badly wounded man slumped between them and yelling, "Don't you give up on me. It's not too much further. You can do it."

A close friend of Mr Holmwood, who did not want to be named, said the bravery was no surprise as "Lenny is the sort of guy who puts it on the line for his mates".

"Lenny would have just charged in there. He knew what Jan was capable of but that wouldn't have stopped him. It would have made him go in.

"He would have wanted to stop Jan from making an egg of himself."

The friend said Mr Holmwood led a simple existence in his small flat on Hospital Hill. His main focus was on his work, which had mainly been in labouring jobs.

As well as Scrappy, he has a lime-green budgie and a couple of finches that he keeps in a cage he built outside his front door.

The text about feeding Scrappy, which was sent to another friend who did not want to be named, was "typical Lenny".

The friend said Mr Holmwood had just lost a job as a hammerhand because of the recession, but had found his "dream job" working with lifeguards at the pool.

He had been the health and safety representative in a previous job at Allied Workforce and organised its team of men for an annual truck-pulling competition to raise money for child cancer victims.

Mr Holmwood was an "old school-looking guy", with a goatee beard.

He had done physical jobs all his life and still "worked like a trooper". He was proud of his younger rugby-playing days.

Mr Holmwood's former manager at Allied Workforce, Ian Stewart, said he was "a good bugger".

He was always the first person to welcome new staff, and in his role as health and safety officer was vocal about keeping his colleagues safe.

"It's no surprise to us what he did," Mr Stewart said. "He always puts others first."

Molenaar's body remained in his house last night.

His brother Peter said the last communication the family had was when he texted his other brother Hans at 1.30pm on Friday.

It said: "You are a choice brother, love you always."

It is understood the last contact police had with him was also that afternoon.

There was no gunfire from him in reaction to tear gas that police fired into the house when they retrieved Mr Snee's body about 5pm.

Police believed him to be dead later on Friday night, but did not want to approach the house until daylight because of fears it was booby-trapped.

They confirmed on Saturday he was dead after they entered the house and found the body.

Investigation head Detective Superintendent Rod Drew refused to take any questions yesterday, but said Molenaar's house was a "stronghold" and was booby-trapped, as suspected.

It contained many military-style semi-automatic weapons, a large amount of ammunition, booby-traps and "improvised explosive devices".

He said the crime scene was complicated and Molenaar's body could not be removed, although this was likely to happen today.

A family spokesman, who did not wish to be named, said that contrary to some media reports, Mr Holmwood had family members in Hawkes Bay who had been with him at his bedside in hospital since he was injured.

"Lenny is an extremely private person - we ask the media to respect his privacy and not attempt to approach him or the family for comment," the spokesman said.

"We want to concentrate on helping him get better and we thank the families of the injured officers for the support they have given us.

"We would also like to thank police and the staff of Hawkes Bay Regional Hospital for all the care he is getting."