The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
BRACEY, Sergeant Richard Mervyn
New Zealand Police
Citation
Early in the afternoon of 14 July 2024, Sergeant Richard Bracey attended a Police response to a family harm incident at a two-bedroom house in Clover Park, Auckland. A woman had argued with her partner and left the house, fearing for her safety, as her partner was threatening to burn the house down. Constable Fritzi Faber and another officer initially responded, meeting the woman away from the property and going to talk with the man still inside the unit. After a conversation with the man through a window, Constable Faber issued a Police Safety Order for the woman’s protection and to remove the man, who was agitated and had locked himself in the house.
Further Police officers arrived, including Sergeant Bracey. Together with Constable Faber, Bracey climbed over a neighbouring fence to the rear of the house and identified an open bathroom window. They decided to enter through the window to arrest the non-compliant man. The officers were unable to fit through the window with their Police vests on, so removed them to climb inside. Faber went first and Bracey asked another officer outside to hand the vests through the window. Inside, Faber replaced her vest, but before Bracey could grab his vest, the man ran from a bedroom past the officers into the adjoining garage.
In the garage, the man swung a fishing rod at Sergeant Bracey’s face, before opening a large plastic petrol cannister and dousing the floor. Bracey tackled the man, who dropped the cannister, and drove him back against the garage door. An officer outside tried unsuccessfully to open the garage tilt door, which wouldn’t move with the power off. Bracey tried to gain control of the man and Constable Faber joined to help restrain him, each grabbing an arm and dragging the man towards the garage rear door. During the struggle the man broke free, pulled a lighter from his pocket and ignited the petrol, which caught immediately and covered around three quarters of the garage floor space. Constable Faber let go of the man’s arm in response, seeing flames around knee-height at her feet and higher throughout the garage, with black smoke gathering. Faber retreated into the hallway. Flames rose to around waist height and Bracey’s boots caught fire.
An officer outside tried to open the rear door to the garage, and Bracey yelled at him to break the door glass. The glass was broken and two officers entered the garage, running through the flames to grab the man, pulling him through the rear door and escorting him to a Police truck on the road.
In the garage, Sergeant Bracey feared the burning petrol cannister would explode, so he picked it up and threw it outside onto grass to prevent the fire from worsening. Constable Faber entered the garage from the hallway to assist Bracey, grabbing blankets from an adjacent bedroom and throwing one over the fire closest to the hallway door, partly suffocating the fire. She grabbed more blankets and with Bracey tried to smother the flames, but the blankets also caught fire. The garage was filling with toxic, black smoke. Faber stepped outside the garage to breathe some fresh air, before she and Bracey finished supressing the fire with containers of water from the laundry tub.
Sergeant Bracey and Constable Faber were treated for mild smoke inhalation.
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
BURKE, Ms Susan Rebecca
Citation
On the afternoon of 19 January 2023, a young boy was playing in the Rees River when he was pulled by the current downriver and into Lake Wakatipu, in the vicinity of Glenorchy wharf. The boy panicked when he was unable to touch the bottom or swim against the current, becoming submerged at the confluence of the river and lake.
Sergeant Harshad Ghodke, an off-duty Police officer, was nearby with his family and swam out to help the boy. He experienced a strong undertow that prevented him from swimming back with the boy, advising him to float on his back while he went to get more help. Another man on the other side of the river, Mr Jonny Young, saw Sergeant Ghodke swimming back without the boy and decided to swim out to help. Mr Young reached the boy and began pulling him, but they were separated and Mr Young stopped swimming due to exhaustion.
Sergeant Ghodke was yelling and waving, trying to attract the attention of boats on the lake. Another holidaymaker from Australia, Ms Susan Burke, was passing by and talked with Ghodke about swimming out to help. Ms Burke spotted Mr Young and the boy about 15 metres from the shore. Already in swimwear, she approached the pair, noting the water dropped off sharply around 10 metres from shore.
Ms Burke reached the boy, who was calm and floating on his back. While aware of Mr Young nearby in the water, she focused on the boy. She hooked her arm around the boy’s chest and swam him towards the shore. At this time, Mr Young was around seven metres from the shore and did not signal any distress before his head went underwater and he disappeared from view. As Ms Burke returned with the boy, she became aware of people yelling “he’s gone under” from the shore. As Ms Burke reached the shore, Sergeant Ghodke waded out and took the boy from her, telling her to go back out to help Mr Young.
Ms Burke swam to her prior location but could not see Mr Young. She duck-dived to see if she could see anything under the water. Two other men swam out to join her and Ms Burke ducked under the water a few more times, but was very tired by this point. The trio then agreed they couldn’t see anything and stopped searching to return to shore. Back on land, Ms Burke was struggling to breathe with exercise-induced asthma and was supported by ambulance staff who arrived shortly afterwards. Mr Young had unfortunately drowned in his attempt to rescue the boy and his body was recovered the following day.
Ms Burke’s actions ensured the rescue of the young boy and, while tired from her efforts, she committed to searching for Mr Young to the limit of her ability.
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
CORNWELL, Mr Hayden Paul
Citation
On 24 January 2025 around 5am, a woman in distress jumped from the Boundary Road Bridge into the Waikato River. The woman survived the jump and when she resurfaced she was in a state of panic, calling out for help while being swept by the fast-moving current.
Mr Hayden Cornwell was asleep in his home, situated by the eastern side of the river. He was awoken by the woman’s cries for help and quickly left the house to search for the source of distress. He located the woman in the river, realising she was at risk of drowning. After following along the riverbank for a short period of time, he jumped into the river and swam to the woman. At this point, the river was 140 metres wide. Mr Cornwell attempted to drag the woman to the eastern riverbank, but when she clung on to him it impaired his ability to swim. Mr Cornwell called out for help as he was now also struggling to remain afloat, swallowing large amounts of water and being forced underwater several times.
Constable Alexander Kerr had responded to the incident and was following the woman from along the opposite side of the river. Constable Kerr heard the calls of distress and entered the water, swimming from the western riverbank towards Mr Cornwell and the woman. Eventually, he saw the shape of Mr Cornwell in the water attempting to hold the woman up. They were very low in the water, with only their heads visible.
As Constable Kerr approached them, he grabbed hold of the woman and pulled Mr Cornwell above the water. Mr Cornwell was then able to swim back to the eastern side of the riverbank, heavily fatigued from his efforts. He pulled himself out of the water and walked up the embankment to the road to alert ambulance and Police staff who were searching the area. Mr Cornwell led other responding Police officers to where Constable Kerr had pulled the woman from the water and supported her on a ledge to stop her from slipping back in.
The woman was shivering violently and struggled to breathe due to ingested water. Mr Cornwell also began shivering and vomiting from ingesting river water. The entire rescue attempt had taken place within approximately 15 minutes and both the woman and Mr Cornwell were taken to hospital and subsequently recovered.
Mr Cornwell demonstrated bravery in entering the fast-flowing river in darkness to assist the woman, coming into trouble himself due to the conditions.
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
FABER, Constable Friederike (Fritzi)
New Zealand Police
Citation
Early in the afternoon of 14 July 2024, Constable Fritzi Faber responded to a family harm incident at a two-bedroom house in Clover Park, Auckland. A woman had argued with her partner and left the house, fearing for her safety, as her partner was threatening to burn the house down. Constable Faber and another officer met the woman away from the property and went to talk with the man still inside the house. After a conversation with the man through a window, Constable Faber decided to issue a Police Safety Order for the woman’s protection and to remove the man, who was agitated, had locked himself in the house.
Further Police officers arrived, including Sergeant Richard Bracey. Constable Faber and Sergeant Bracey climbed over a neighbouring fence to the rear of the house and identified an open bathroom window. They decided to enter through the window to arrest the non-compliant man. The officers were unable to fit through the window with their Police vests on, so removed them to climb inside. Faber went first and Bracey asked another officer outside to hand the vests through the window. Inside, Faber replaced her vest, but before Bracey could grab his vest, the man ran from a bedroom past the officers into the adjoining garage.
In the garage, the man swung a fishing rod at Sergeant Bracey’s face, before opening a large plastic petrol cannister and dousing the floor. Bracey tackled the man, who dropped the cannister, and drove him against the garage door. An officer outside tried unsuccessfully to open the garage tilt door, which wouldn’t move with the power off. Bracey tried to gain control of the man and Constable Faber joined to help restrain him, each grabbing an arm and dragging the man towards the garage rear door. During the struggle the man broke free, pulled a lighter from his pocket and ignited the petrol, which caught immediately and covered around three quarters of the garage floor space. Constable Faber let go of the man’s arm in response, seeing flames around knee-height at her feet and higher throughout the garage, with black smoke gathering. Faber retreated into the hallway and called for Sergeant Bracey. Flames rose to around waist height and Bracey’s boots caught fire.
An officer broke the glass to unlock the rear door to the garage. Two officers entered the garage, running through the flames to grab the man, pulling him through the rear door and escorting him to a Police truck on the road.
In the garage, Sergeant Bracey threw the burning petrol cannister onto the grass outside to prevent the fire from worsening. Constable Faber entered the garage from the hallway to assist Bracey, grabbing blankets from an adjacent bedroom and throwing one over the fire closest to the hallway door, partly suffocating the fire. She grabbed more blankets and with Bracey tried to smother the flames, but the blankets also caught fire. The garage was filling with toxic, black smoke. Faber stepped outside the garage to breathe some fresh air, before she and Bracey finished supressing the fire with containers of water from the laundry tub.
Sergeant Bracey and Constable Faber were treated for mild smoke inhalation.
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
GHODKE, Sergeant Harshad Ashok (Harry)
New Zealand Police
Citation
On the afternoon of 19 January 2023, a young boy was playing in the Rees River when he was pulled by the current downriver and into Lake Wakatipu, in the vicinity of Glenorchy wharf. The boy panicked when he was unable to touch the bottom or swim against the current, becoming submerged at the confluence of the river and lake.
Sergeant Harry Ghodke, an off-duty Police officer, was nearby with his family. He heard a commotion and spotted the boy, removed some of his clothing and swam to the area of the lake where he had seen the boy go underwater. A strong undertow was present. Ghodke grabbed the boy, who climbed on top of him, which dragged Ghodke further down into the lake. He struggled with the undertow to keep his head above water and the boy afloat. He reassured the boy, telling him to float on his back and that he’d get more help. Ghodke began swimming back to shore against the prevailing current, which pulled him down and impeded his progress. Around 15 metres from the shore he ran out of energy and tried standing, but found no solid footing. He aimed at his family on the shore and put his energy into swimming the final distance, eventually reaching sand, walking a few steps and collapsing breathless and exhausted.
Another man on the other side of the river, Mr Jonny Young, saw Sergeant Ghodke swimming back without the boy and decided to swim out to help. Mr Young reached the boy and began pulling him, but they were separated and Mr Young stopped swimming due to exhaustion.
Sergeant Ghodke was yelling and waving, trying to attract the attention of boats on the lake. Ms Susan Burke was passing by and talked with Ghodke about swimming out to help. Ms Burke spotted Mr Young and the boy about 15 metres from the shore and swam out to the pair, noting the water deepened sharply around 10 metres from shore.
Ms Burke reached the boy and was able to swim with him back to shore. At this time, Mr Young was around seven metres from the shore and did not signal any distress before his head went underwater and he disappeared from view. As Ms Burke returned with the boy, people on the shore were yelling “he’s gone under”. Sergeant Ghodke waded out to meet Ms Burke and took the boy from her, telling her to go back out to help Mr Young.
Ms Burke swam to her prior location but could not see Mr Young. Two other men swam out to join her and Ms Burke ducked under the water several times, before the trio agreed to stop searching. Mr Young had unfortunately drowned in his attempt to rescue the boy and his body was recovered the following day.
The actions of Sergeant Ghodke addressed the immediate panic of the boy, calming him and having him float, allowing further time for a rescue to occur.
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
JONES, Detective Sergeant Heath Courtenay, NZBD
New Zealand Police
Citation
On 14 February 2023 the severe category three Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand and caused widespread devastation in the Eastern District, with a large-scale civil defence emergency response undertaken. Rivers were flooded, stop banks breached and flooding rose rapidly to envelop buildings and landslides swept away homes, while slips, debris and downed bridges prevented movement along much of the roading network.
Detective Sergeant Heath Jones and another Police officer were deployed to rescue people in the Pakowhai area, outside Hastings. They learnt of a fellow Police officer who was trapped on the roof of a shed at her property along with her 4-year-old son and baby. The officers drove to the Pakowhai Road address, before having to continue through rising floodwaters on foot.
When they reached the property, the water was at chest height. They moved through the strong current to find the stranded officer and her children on the shed roof. Detective Sergeant Jones climbed on a submerged fence to lift down the 4-year-old, passing him to the other officer. Once the mother and her baby were off the roof, the group travelled carefully back through the waters to their Police car.
Detective Sergeant Jones and his fellow officer then focused on worsening conditions at Chesterhope Bridge. They spotted an older couple stranded around 200 metres away, trying to cross the floodwater. Jones walked along the stop bank towards the couple while the other officer used the Police vehicle loudspeaker to instruct the couple to approach the stop bank, but they did not respond. Jones entered the water to swim out to the couple, navigating a submerged barbwire fence line to reach them. The other officer entered the water and met Jones and the couple at the fence line. They established that the woman was exhausted and not a good swimmer and the man was unable to swim. The floodwater had now reached the top of the stop bank.
Detective Sergeant Jones spoke to the couple about getting to the riverbank, crossing the flowing water being the only possible route, with the other directions impassable. Jones and the other officer helped the couple cross over the submerged barb wire fence. Due to the depth of water on the other side, no footing was available which meant being taken by the current for a short distance. Jones stayed with the woman while the other officer swam the man to the riverbank, being carried around five metres by the current.
The other officer returned to Detective Sergeant Jones and the woman. The officers wrapped their arms around the woman and carried her across the current to safety. The area in which the officers undertook these rescues was later confirmed to have been fully flooded, with houses submerged.
HONOURS
New Zealand Bravery Decoration, Special Honours List 2 April 2011 (Bravery Awards)
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
KERR, Constable Alexander James Christian Henry
New Zealand Police
Citation
On 24 January 2025 around 5am, a woman in distress jumped from the Boundary Road Bridge into the Waikato River. The woman survived the jump and when she resurfaced she was in a state of panic, calling out for help while being swept by the fast-moving current.
Constable Alexander Kerr (Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga) was coming to the end of his night shift when he received reports of a woman screaming for help in the Waikato River. The woman was last heard near the Fairfield Bridge, prompting Constable Kerr and his fellow officer to go to the location, with two other Police officers in support. A Police boat was also launched to assist.
Constable Kerr arrived at the river and immediately heard the woman screaming for help. Using his torch to locate her in the darkness, he could see she wasn’t swimming and being dragged almost fully submerged in the water. He, along with three other officers, ran parallel along the river path to keep a visual on her location. When she came within four metres of the riverbank, Constable Kerr removed his Police vest, climbed down a steep gully and jumped into the river. The weight of his waterlogged uniform made it difficult to surface, and when he did the woman had been swept towards the other side of the river. Constable Kerr climbed back up the gully and continued running down-river.
He noticed the woman’s yells were becoming more infrequent and she was tiring, having been swept more than a kilometre. He radioed to check on the location of the Police boat. Sand banks had obstructed the boat’s path, so Constable Kerr knew it could not assist.
Constable Kerr continued running along the western side of the river to a point where the land began to flatten, looking for an easier entry point into the water. He could now hear the voice of Mr Hayden Cornwell, a civilian on the eastern side of the riverbank, 140 metres away, who had entered the water to assist the woman.
The woman had quietened, making it difficult to locate her. Constable Kerr heard someone in distress on the opposite side of the river. He took off his boots, belt and shirt and waded through 50 metres of shallow mud flats before diving into the main current. He could not see anyone in the darkness and swam towards the noise, yelling that he was coming. Eventually, he saw the shape of Mr Cornwell in the water attempting to hold the woman up. They were very low in the water, with only their heads visible.
As Constable Kerr approached Mr Cornwell and the woman, he grabbed hold of her and pulled Mr Cornwell above the water. The woman was unable to swim, relying on Constable Kerr to prevent her from sinking. The woman wrapped both arms around Constable Kerr’s neck and her weight pushed him underwater, forcing him to hold his breath until he could resurface. Eventually, he reached the river’s edge, pulling the woman to the bank. Nearby, he could hear Mr Cornwell pulling himself out of the water and leaving to find help.
Constable Kerr placed the woman on a ledge slightly out of the water, supporting her so she would not fall back in. The woman was shivering violently and struggling to breathe due to ingested water.
Constable Kerr yelled to the other constables who had been following on the opposite riverbank that everyone was out of the water, and that the woman required an ambulance. When Mr Cornwell returned with another officer, the two officers helped the woman up the bank to a nearby carpark to wait for the ambulance.
Mr Cornwell also began shivering and vomiting from ingesting river water. The entire rescue attempt had taken place within approximately 15 minutes and both the woman and Mr Cornwell were taken to hospital and subsequently recovered.
Constable Kerr’s actions ensured the rescue of the woman, as well as Mr Cornwell who had come into trouble during his rescue attempt.
The New Zealand Bravery Medal:
YOUNG, Mr Jonathan Jordan (Jonny) (Posthumous)
Deceased 19 January 2023, Glenorchy
Citation
On the afternoon of 19 January 2023, a young boy was playing in the Rees River when he was pulled by the current downriver and into Lake Wakatipu, in the vicinity of Glenorchy wharf. The boy panicked when he was unable to touch the bottom or swim against the current, becoming submerged at the confluence of the river and lake.
Sergeant Harry Ghodke, an off-duty Police officer, was nearby with his family and swam out to help the boy. He experienced a strong undertow that prevented him from swimming back with the boy, advising him to float on his back while he went to get more help.
On the other side of the river, Mr Jonny Young saw Sergeant Ghodke swimming back without the boy. A physiotherapist on holiday from Australia, Mr Young decided to swim out to the boy, who was around 10 metres from the shore. Mr Young reached the boy and began pulling him, but they were separated and Mr Young stopped swimming due to exhaustion.
Another holidaymaker from Australia, Ms Susan Burke, spotted Mr Young and the boy about 15 metres from the shore. She swam out towards the pair, noting the water deepened sharply around 10 metres from shore.
Ms Burke reached the boy, who was calm and floating on his back. While aware of Mr Young nearby in the water, she focused on the boy. She hooked her arm around the boy’s chest and swam him towards the shore. At this time, Mr Young was around seven metres from the shore and did not signal any distress before his head went underwater and he disappeared from view. As Ms Burke returned with the boy, she became aware of people yelling “he’s gone under” from the shore. As Ms Burke reached the shore, Sergeant Ghodke waded out and took the boy from her, telling her to go back out to help Mr Young.
Ms Burke swam to her prior location but could not see Mr Young. She duck-dived to see if she could see anything under the water. Two other men swam out to join her and Ms Burke ducked under the water a few more times, but was very tired by this point. The trio then agreed they couldn’t see anything and stopped searching to return to shore. Mr Young had unfortunately drowned in his attempt to rescue the boy and his body was recovered the following day.
Mr Young’s rescue attempt demonstrated selfless bravery, at the cost of his life.