{"id":637473,"date":"2026-10-22T00:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637473\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T00:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:38:10","slug":"waitarere-beach-incident-ben-timmins-sister-praises-police-officers-bravery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637473\/","title":{"rendered":"Wait\u0101rere Beach incident: Ben Timmins\u2019 sister praises police officer\u2019s bravery"},"content":{"rendered":"

After hearing of Cramp\u2019s heroism<\/a>, Timmins\u2019 sister Rachel O\u2019Grady told the Herald she had nothing but praise for him.<\/p>\n

\"RachelRachel O’Grady at the Wait\u0101rere Beach Rd property after viewing her brother’s body. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n

\u201cThank God someone did something,\u201d O\u2019Grady said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Cramp] gave the same treatment he would have given anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how hard you tried. I know it didn\u2019t change the outcome, and I\u2019m so sorry that it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she was \u201cashamed and sorry\u201d the officer had to respond in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a young fella, has his whole career ahead of him. No one should have to see what he saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice guarding the Wait\u0101rere Beach property at the time of the incident. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

As Cramp carried out his armed search of the home, he came across \u201cmultiple pools of blood and spent shell casings\u201d.<\/p>\n

In one bedroom, he found a 22-year-old man on a bed covered in blood.<\/p>\n

A woman was found in another room with a fractured skull and significant intracranial injuries, while a 17-year-old boy was found with gunshot wounds in a third bedroom.<\/p>\n

Drawing on his military experience in battlefield trauma management, Cramp began treating the injured.<\/p>\n

One of the men had been shot in the face, a near-fatal injury that limited potential first aid options.<\/p>\n

The other had gunshot wounds to his chest, arm and abdomen, and Cramp made chest seals using plastic bandage packaging.<\/p>\n

The Police Association said the man had broken ribs, lung lacerations and significant trauma to his spleen and kidneys.<\/p>\n

It said Cramp\u2019s actions were \u201cdirectly instrumental\u201d in preventing the deaths of the three survivors.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Grady said despite Cramp\u2019s military experience, the last thing he would have expected was to \u201cwalk into a war scene\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry you had to bear the weight of that, and I hope you know that no one who loves Ben doubts for a moment that everything possible was done. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ConstableConstable David Cramp (standing at right) receives the 2026 Police Bravery Award for his actions after a triple shooting at Wait\u0101rere Beach in January this year. Photo \/ Grace Symmans<\/p>\n

She also acknowledged the incident would have been \u201ctraumatic\u201d for Timmins\u2019 wife, her two sons and the couple\u2019s 9-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful my niece had someone to comfort her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really truly care for those kids [the young men] too. I\u2019m glad everyone is on the mend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he [Cramp] did for them matters just as much, and I\u2019m so grateful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RachelRachel O’Grady (right) and other family members held a karakia at the property after the triple shooting. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n

O\u2019Grady said her brother was missed every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gave my brother dignity and effort when he needed it most, and you gave my family something to hold on to, which is knowing that he wasn\u2019t alone and that people tried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cramp said last week he appreciated the recognition and the award.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe question wasn\u2019t whether I was going to go in, but who would follow me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His advice for other cops was to \u201ctrain for the day that you hope never comes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After hearing of Cramp\u2019s heroism, Timmins\u2019 sister Rachel O\u2019Grady told the Herald she had nothing but praise for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7972,15361,57880,95524,12939,6179,34464,8231,9832,1345,671,10933,312535,111,43,139,69,10932,23421,384,675,13033,13031,11590,27886,1529,158798,137506],"class_list":["post-637473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-beach","tag-ben","tag-bloodied","tag-bravery","tag-critically","tag-died","tag-entered","tag-event","tag-helped","tag-home","tag-incident","tag-injured","tag-masscasualty","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-officers","tag-people","tag-police","tag-praised","tag-praises","tag-save","tag-sister","tag-three","tag-timmins","tag-waitrere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}