Man charged with killing police officer appears in court, gets name suppression

By Pretoria Gordon

The man accused of killing a police officer has been remanded in custody after appearing in the Nelson District Court.

He was given interim name suppression for seven days and remanded without a plea.

No bail application was made.

He was due to appear at the High Court in Nelson on February 14.

Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming died after she and her colleague, Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsey, were hit by a vehicle in Buxton Square in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Two members of the public were also injured in this incident.

One woman received a broken arm and a man who came to assist police was injured in his shoulder.

• Flowers and tributes left for slain police officer

A third police officer was assessed for a concussion and discharged from hospital.

In court on Friday, Judge Richard Russell also made an order prohibiting all media - including social media - from publishing a video of the incident.

A 32-year-old man was arrested at the scene, and now faces eight charges - including murder, attempted murder, assault using a vehicle as a weapon, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.

Outside the Nelson Police Station, which is next door to the courthouse, scores of people delivered flowers, balloons, handwritten cards and letters at the base of the flagpole, where the New Zealand Police flag flew at half-mast on Friday morning.

Marshall Garrett cycled down to deliver handpicked flowers, while Erin Gurnell had driven up from Christchurch to pay her respects.

"I lived here for three years, and you just think this is the absolute last thing that should happen here - or anywhere," she said.

Amelia Boland had also come down in support of the local police community alongside her two children Freddie and Chester.

"They've lost someone they care about," she told RNZ.

It was not only individuals - or families - but people from local shops, restaurants, churches, and community groups too.

Jennifer Macleod, a pastor at Stoke Baptist Church, delivered a large bouquet on behalf of Baptist congregations "in recognition of a very significant loss in our community".

Teary police staff had also come to collect the cards and letters to give to Fleming's family.

In a statement on Thursday, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the incident, which claimed the life of the widely-respected police officer with 38 years' frontline service, was "tragic and senseless".

"For New Zealand, Lyn is tragically the first policewoman to be killed in the line of duty and the first police officer in Nelson.

"I know we are all struggling to understand why this has happened."

Chambers said Fleming's family wished to acknowledge Nelson Hospital, the members of the public who came to the assistance of the injured officers, and all of those injured in this incident.