Radio New Zealand bulletins editor Phillip Alexander Cottrell, 43, died in hospital yesterday after he was attacked on Wellington’s Boulcott Street at 5:30 on Saturday morning.
The attack has shocked the radio station that usually reports the news rather than making it.
3 News reporter Charlotte Shipman spoke to Radio New Zealand head of news Don Rood today about Cottrell’s attack and how the public broadcaster is coping with the loss.
Mr Rood says people are “stunned and shocked by what has happened. It’s such a cowardly attack, in daylight, in the central city”.
“It’s not something I have had to cope with before or anyone [at Radio NZ] has had to cope with before. You just do not expect that to happen.”
He says they are struggling to come to terms with it and cannot describe what they are feeling.
Mr Rood says Cottrell was lucky to have a good circle of friends and colleagues who were with him at the hospital.
3 News