Police honoured at bravery awards

Rob Brown and Nina Bartlett with their young son George Brown, who all survived a speeding car that crashed into their bedroom of their house in Mt Eden.

Police have honoured a number of members of the public - as well as several police officers - with bravery awards at a ceremony in Auckland this morning.

Dozens of people and their families gathered at Eden Park for the Police Auckland Metropolitan area awards - which cover incidents that occurred in the Waitemata, Counties Manukau and Auckland Central regions.

Among those to receive awards were Constable Emma Lawrence and Senior Constable Tony Feasey.

Ms Lawrence was called to a late-night incident in Mt Eden, earlier this year, where a car had smashed into a family bedroom. A couple and their 7-week-old son were sleeping in the room at the time.

The baby's frantic parents passed their baby - who was not breathing - to Ms Lawrence; who then managed to dislodge a piece of concrete that had been blocking the baby's airway.

"I was just doing my job," she said this morning.

"People say it was heroic but I was just doing what anyone else would've done in that situation."

Mr Feasey, a dog handler, helped to bring a man who had been on the run after shooting another man in the head.

He hid in bushes for several hours and was suicidal. Mr Feasey managed to contact him by phone and spoke with him. The man later handed himself in.

Mr Feasey was praised for building a rapport with the man, who only agreed to come quietly if Mr Feasey disarmed himself and came without a police dog.

"He basically didn't want to go to prison," Mr Feasey said.

"He said he wanted to die instead of going to prison. I just kept talking to him and that felt good - we didn't need a police dog or any ugly scenes. He just needed to talk."

Several members of the public were also honoured for their bravery; including Elliot Ikilei, Lynn Hagger, David Insull and 17-year-old Jonathan Sa'u.

Mr Ikilei received his award after he helped to prevent a serious crash - and therefore, severe injuries - on Auckland's south-western motorway.

Travelling on his motorcycle, he stopped in the middle of the road after seeing that a car had broken down on the motorway's fast lane.

He helped the occupants get safely to the side of the road and left his motorcycle a few metres from the car - with its hazard lights on - to help warn other motorists.

A truck failed to see it and smashed into both the motorcycle and the family's car - damaging it severely.