New Zealand awards for police who captured Christchurch shooting suspect
By REUTERS
WELLINGTON - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern handed bravery awards to two police officers in a private ceremony on Wednesday for risking their lives to capture and arrest a man accused of killing 51 people at Christchurch mosques in March.After the mass shooting of Muslim worshippers in two mosques, the suspect was heading to a third mosque when the officers managed to ram his car off the road and took him into custody."All officers wonder how they would respond when faced with a split-second decision to risk their lives," Chris Cahill, the president of the New Zealand Police Association, said in a statement."These two officers have answered that question by responding with outstanding bravery, which protected many others from further harm."Australian national Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, has pleaded not guilty to 92 charges stemming from the massacre.The action by the officers, whose identity a court has ordered not to be revealed pending the trial, helped save lives, as the gunman was planning more attacks in the city.The award recipients said they were part of a huge operation that led to the arrest."In doing our job, we represented all police staff around the country who put themselves in harm's way every day," they said in a statement issued by police.
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