LATEST: Senior Constable Bruce Lamb, 51, is lucky to be alive after being shot in the face.
Lamb, 50, is in Christchurch Hospital's intensive care unit after surgery last night to insert titanium plates in his face and jaw after he was shot.
He was able to speak briefly on the telephone with Superintendent Cliff this morning.
"Bruce is in a lot of pain, but he's talking and seems very chipper for what he's been through."
The dog handler, a 32-year veteran, and 39-year-old Constable Mitchel Alatalo were shot in Phillipstown yesterday morning. A bullet passed through Alatalo's thigh, narrowly missing his femoral artery, at a Buccleugh St property, where police believed cannabis was being cultivated.
Alatalo, 30, is recovering from surgery for a bullet wound to his left thigh. Alatolo is in a surgical ward and is "doing fine" this morning.
Six-year-old police dog Gage was killed, and his body was left lying in the middle of the road.
As armed officers rushed a gunman who had shot two Christchurch policemen, one final shot rang out.
Amateur video shows the 34-year-old man being apprehended as a rifle, believed to be a .308, hangs on a nearby clothesline. A shot is heard as the man is subdued.
The Press understands the armed offenders squad officers overpowered the man, using a police dog and a Taser.
Neighbour George Mataki witnessed the incident from his three-storey home.
He told The Press the gunman fired a final shot before being tackled by police.
"The gun was hanging on the clothesline, but he was standing right next to it," Mataki said.
"They shouted `get down, get down', but he wouldn't. They moved closer and he reached for it, but they tackled him. As he went down, he got a shot off."
A police spokeswoman said last night that one weapon was taken from a clothesline.
"But whether and how and when the shot happened, we are still working our way through that," she said.
Lamb and Alatalo had been looking for a psychiatric patient on the street when they went to a nearby address, smelt cannabis and searched the house under the Misuse of Drugs Act. One person was arrested and taken away, but another person shot at police in the house.
After seeing his colleague shot in the face, the younger constable tried to flee.
Lamb was overheard on the police radio saying: "I've been shot, I've been shot ... tell Comms my dog's dead."
At a press conference, an upset Canterbury District Commander Superintendent Dave Cliff said: "A police dog handler has been shot in the face.
"A second constable has seen what's happened and attempted to escape and was shot through the thigh."
The Press understands a .22 calibre rifle was used.作者: SNOWNOWHERE 时间: 2010-7-14 11:06:37
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好可怕