By Hamish Clark
A Christchurch police dog handler Bruce Lamb has told a news conference he thought he was going to die when he was shot through the jaw, and his police dag Gage was killed by a gunman.
He was one of two officers who were shot and wounded as they attempted to arrest a man in Christchurch two weeks ago.
Mr Lamb considers himself lucky to be alive.
"My jaw was seriously broken, shattered in 15 places and an entry wound through front of mouth that has healed… A lot of the bullet did damage inside my jaw, which is obviously ongoing and you can't see, and an exit wound on the side of my head that you can't see. There was a lot of blood loss."
Watch the full news conference with Mr Lamb.
Mr Lamb, along with Constables Mitchel Alatalo and Mike Wardle were raiding a house for drugs when a man emerged from a room and opened fire with a .22 rifle.
"It was pretty fast and exceptionally scary stuff," says Mr Lamb. "We didn't expect to be confronted with loaded firearms."
Mr Lamb also explained how his dog, Gage, came to by lying dead in the street.
"We were inside the house, on the lead, he was shot inside the house. I was holding my jaw and exiting the house, we got out onto the drive and thought is he okay, he was running beside me - I ran 20 paces and I looked down and I was dragging a dog that was dead."
Mr Lamb was bundled into a police car and raced to hospital.
"I was 100 percent sure I was going to die in that police car on the way to hospital. I was losing a lot of blood and was trying to contact family.
"One of the worst decisions I made was leaving him in the middle of the road. I had a lot of difficulty seeing him lying there."
Constable Alatalo was shot through the thigh, but didn't realise it at the time.
"It wasn't until after my leg was stinging and thought I better get to the hospital, hopped in the patrol car."
A few days later, there was a private police ceremony for Gage.
"They brought him around, he had his police coat on, he was wrapped in a New Zealand Police flag and he was surrounded by flowers," says Mr Lamb.
"One of the handlers is a piper, they piped him in. A guy said a few words, gave him a farewell pat and it was pretty special. We had a toast of port to him and I have to say, a toast of port is not good through a straw.
"He has now been cremated."
Mr Lamb still has more operations to go on his jaw and some bone grafts and new teeth. In the meantime he has been given a new Labrador puppy and has yet to make up his mind when he returns to work if he will continue as a dog handler.
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