Three of the officers who were injured have been discharged from hospital while the fourth officer remains in Waikato Hospital after suffering gunshot wounds to the head. Photo / Nick Reed
Three of the officers who were injured have been discharged from hospital while the fourth officer remains in Waikato Hospital after suffering gunshot wounds to the head. Photo / Nick Reed
The wife of a police officer shot in the hand during a 22-hour siege in the Bay of Plenty has opened up about the moment she learned he had been injured.
The man was admitted to Waikato hospital on Wednesday after he suffered a gunshot wound to the hand duringa stand-off between police and alleged gunman 27-year-old Rhys Warren.
Rhys Richard Ngahiwi Warren appears in the Whakatane District Court to face charges in relation to the armed incident in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Photo / Alan Gibson
He was one of four officers shot during the incident at a rural Onepu Spring Rd property, all of whom have name suppression.
His wife described the moment she received a phone call informing her of her husband's injuries as "pretty freaky".
"It's pretty shocking and we've got young children too. You get the call and then what next? What do you do? Because you can't contact them you feel a bit isolated," she told Fairfax.
"They're trained well and they're good at their jobs and so you send them out always expecting that they'll come back and that things will be fine."
Three of the officers who were injured have been discharged from hospital while the fourth officer remains in Waikato Hospital after suffering gunshot wounds to the head.
The incident began on Wednesday morning when a police plane was shot at while searching for cannabis crops near Kawerau.
What followed was a tense 22 hours between police and the single gunman.
Taupo police area commander Warwick Morehu at a media conference at Onepu Springs Rd after the gunman was taken into custody. Photo / Nick Reed
The incident was eventually brought to a safe end when police officer Warwick Morehu entered into negotiations with the alleged gunman and ended the siege without further bloodshed.
Warren appeared in the Rotorua District Court on Thursday where he was remanded in custody without plea on four charges of using a firearm against four different police officers on March 9.
The charges have a maximum penalty of 14 years' prison.
