By Rachel Hart
Those close to Constable Jeremy snow describe him as a "kind soul" who is the life of the party.
The youngest of three children, his main ambitions from a young age were to become a policeman or a truck driver.
Father David Snow was at home on Great Barrier Island when news came through his son, 28-year-old Constable Snow, had been shot. Mr Snow's sister rang shortly after 6:30am yesterday morning.
"She did say he'd been shot but he was in hospital, but he's not critical, as she saw him coming out of the ambulance and he was quite coherent," says Mr Snow.
Despite his son's choice of career, it wasn't a call Mr Snow ever thought he would receive.
"No, never expecting, as you never think it would happen to your family," he says. "Even if I hadn't had the phone call and heard a policeman had been shot, I wouldn't have thought it was my son. You don't expect it to be family.
"The biggest shock was when I saw the news last night on TV3, him getting in the ambulance. That was a bigger shock than the actual phone call, because actually seeing it is more graphic than hearing about things, you know."
Mr Snow managed to book a flight and arrived in Auckland last night, heading straight to Middlemore Hospital.
"He was pleased to see me, yes. But he wasn't very coherent, been under surgery for seven hours. It's a long time. Hard to keep his eyes open. He wasn't falling asleep, but hard to keep his eyes open."
Growing up in Manurewa, Constable Snow had two main passions - becoming a policeman, and driving trucks.
"We had a truck digging yard when he was young and he used to come and help before he started school. He used to come back filthy as anything, black as the ace of spades, with two little white eyes. But he loved it, so he wanted to become a truck driver and a policeman."
After a short spell of being a truck driver, it was time for Jeremy to pursue his other main love.
"Being a short person, he didn't think he'd actually be a policeman. Although he wanted to be, he didn't think he'd be able to be. He's only short! But of course they got rid of the height restrictions and he was able to become a policeman, and his second childhood dream had come true."
Constable Snow graduated from police college just over a year ago, and his father says he certainly enjoyed life.
"He's very kind, life of the party," says Mr Snow. "A couple of weekends ago we were down to Rotorua for a niece's wedding and he was on the dancefloor getting everyone excited and going. It's going to be hard for him not to get about like he does."
The father and son hadn't ever discussed the risks of being a police officer. Mr Snow thinks it will take some time for his son to recover from yesterday's shooting.
"If you thought about things all the time you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning, if you thought of all the dangers in life. Being a Christian family we think the Lord will provide for us and look after us, and things could have been a lot worse."
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