# Police officer killed and four others injured in vehicle attack during patrol in Nelson
A New Zealand police officer was killed and four other people were injured after a driver struck officers during a patrol in Nelson on 2025-01-01, according to police.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the driver ran down two officers as they patrolled on foot in the early hours of New Year’s Day, driving into them “at speed” in a parking lot before turning and ramming a police car. Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming died in hospital hours later. Police said she was the first female officer in New Zealand history to be killed by a criminal act while at work.
The other officer struck by the car was seriously injured but expected to recover fully. A third officer inside the rammed police vehicle suffered a concussion. Two members of the public were also hurt, including one person who came to help the injured officers.
A 32-year-old man was arrested shortly after the incident and later charged with eight criminal counts, including murder, attempted murder, assault using a vehicle as a weapon, and driving while disqualified. He was due in court on Friday after the attack. Police did not give a motive, and Chambers said there was no immediate indication of what had prompted the violence.
The killing shocked a country where the death of a police officer on duty is rare. Before this incident, the last on-duty police killing in New Zealand had been in 2020, when an officer was shot by a fleeing driver. Police records cited by AP show 33 other officers have died through criminal acts while on duty since 1890.
Fleming had served in the police for 38 years and was also described as a long-serving netball coach at a local girls’ high school. Chambers said she was a mother, a wife, and a highly respected member of the Nelson community. The city itself, with a population of about 55,000, was still carrying out New Year’s celebrations nearby when the attack took place.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell called the incident a cowardly attack, while Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described it as a devastating day for police and for the country. The combination of the timing, the setting, and the number of people injured turned what should have been a routine patrol into one of the country’s most disturbing policing tragedies in recent years.
