A 14-year-old schoolboy is being praised for his bravery, after jumping into the middle of a brawl to help an off-duty South Auckland police officer.
Year 11 student Reef Cooney entered the Tuakau fight as one attacker repeatedly kicked semi-conscious John Connolly in the head. He then helped move him to safety as the attackers fled.
The Tuakau College student was walking home from school when he saw Mr Connolly approach a group of angry young people.
“Some guy hit him in the face and then everybody started jumping out, and it moved across to the middle of the road,” says Reef.
Within minutes the officer was on the ground, being kicked and punched by up to 15 teenagers. Reef didn’t stop to think about the danger – he just stepped in.
“I had to push a guy off from kicking him in the head, it was pretty violent,” he says.
“I didn’t really think, I just went in there and got everybody off him.”
Mr Connolly was left with multiple fractures to his face, a broken jaw, broken ankle, collapsed lung, and missing teeth. He was unconscious and in a critical condition.
When asked why, when everybody else was joining in, he decided to help out, Reef says 10 to 15 kids against one man is “not right”.
He says the scariest thing was realising what the mob had done to Mr Connolly.
Once the attackers had run off, Reef and a neighbour helped move the officer to the side of the road.
Tuakau residents and Tuakau College have welcomed Reef’s fearless intervention.
“There is a hell of a lot of good kids here, just as there are at most schools – it’s just one or two that spoil it for the others. One or two of 10 – that’s just unfortunate,” says Board of Trustees chairman Andrew Cully.
Reef’s mum, Tammy, says she’s pretty proud of him too. As the oldest of seven kids, no one at home is surprised he was there to help in someone else’s hour of need.
“That’s the way we bring our kids up, to go out there and help people – anybody, it doesn’t matter who,” says Ms Cooney.
“He did a great job and it wouldn’t matter who it was on the side of the road – a child, an elderly person, anybody, he’d help anybody.”
The reluctant hero says he just feels sorry for Mr Connolly.
“Everybody is kind of saying I’m a hero, but I’m not. I’m just another guy who’s trying to help a beaten up man off the road.”
And he says “of course” he would do it again.