2009 Napier shootings

The 2009 Napier shootings (also widely called the Napier siege by the New Zealand media) occurred on 7 May 2009 in Napier, New Zealand. At around 9.30 am, Jan Molenaar fired on New Zealand Police officers executing a routine cannabis search warrant at his house at 41 Chaucer Road, killing Senior Constable Len Snee and seriously injuring Senior Constables Bruce Miller and Grant Diver. A neighbour attempting to assist the police was also shot. Over one hundred police, including Armed Offenders Squad and Special Tactics Group members, were brought in to cordon and contain the gunman, who was identified as a former territorial soldier. A siege lasting over forty hours developed, during which police officers made repeated attempts under fire to retrieve the body of the slain officer. With the assistance of two New Zealand Army NZLAVs, they were successful at about 5 pm on 8 May. At around midday on 9 May police found the gunman dead inside the master bedroom of the house.

Jan Molenaar, 51, was born of Ngāti Kahungunu extraction and grew up in Napier, where he went to Nelson Park Primary School, Napier Intermediate School and William Colenso College. In the 1980s he spent six years in the territorial armoured corps of the Hawke's Bay and Wellington Regiment. Molenaar is said to have been a loner, and to have missed his brother, who had killed himself having experimented with the drug methamphetamine.

Senior Constables Snee, Miller and Diver attended an address in Napier during a routine cannabis investigation. An occupant of the house fired shots at the policemen, killing Snee and wounding Miller and Diver. A neighbour was also shot when he tried to intervene. Diver sheltered behind a neighbouring house where he was able to phone for back up. Armed Offenders members responded quickly; with the aid of two members of the public they pulled Miller to safety; armed officers also retrieved the injured civilian, Leonard Holmwood. The officers were commended for their bravery at rescuing their comrades by Prime Minister John Key. Key also praised the police for their actions over the course of the Napier siege. Sacred Heart school, Nelson Park School, Napier Central School, Napier Intermediate and Napier Girls' High School were all on lockdown for Thursday, and Nelson Park School, Napier Central School and Napier Intermediate were shut on Friday.