Aramoana Massacre
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Not only were the residents of Aramoana affected by the tragedy but people all around New Zealand 20 years later. Twenty years later Inspector Dave Campbell (61) who was apart of the Aramoana tragedy reports to Journalist Hamish McNeilly about what happened on November 13th 1990.
Inspector Dave Campbell recalls how terrifying the massacre was but finds it "funny" that he remembers a lot of what occured during the 23 hour massacre. ''Never seen that before,'' he said, recalling the events of November 13, 1990. 'Nothing can prepare you for something that extreme, however the training ... when the pressure is on ... you seem to go into automatic mode.'' ''It was just unbelievable; with the burning house it was like a wartime movie. ''There were bodies everywhere. We came across bodies as we moved into position and the guys were checking them for a pulse but it was quite evident that people had been killed.'' ''It is all very well to be heroic, but if you end up getting you or your staff killed, you are no help to anybody.'' ''One girl survived and that made it really worthwhile,'' he said. Mr Campbell said he bore no grudge or hatred towards David Gray who ''was mad ... he had just lost it''. The days following the massacre were spent writing debriefs and reports, and ''I felt strung out''. ''We had a job a week afterwards, and I said I don't want to command this because I wasn't 100%.'' Mr Campbell said in a report he recommended AOS equipment be better as the group was not prepared or ready for such an "extreme" crime. ''David Gray with a semi-automatic rifle could lay down as much lead as the whole AOS at any point in time. We had single-shot weapons ... we didn't have the same firepower ability and I thought that needed to change.'' For his role at Aramoana, he received the Police Commissioners' merit award, an award he was honoured to receive but did not want to talk about. Not only was the officers affected by the Aramoana massacre, but the murdered childrens schools had been affected badly by the event as well.
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