Brawl heroines? You can’t mean us
Two women who intervened in a vicious brawl in Lower Hutt’s Queensgate Mall deny being heroines.
Renee Kennedy and her aunt, Katherine Waimotu, have been identified as the women who stepped in when a fight broke out between rival gangs about 4pm on Tuesday.
The pair said they acted out of fear that children would be caught up in the brawl.
Kennedy said the brutality of the fight left onlookers in shock. ‘‘A guy in his 20s was getting beaten up badly, so being stupid we jumped in.’’
The brawlers had weapons including a screwdriver and hammer. The women were talking to a friend when the fight began.
Kennedy was worried the fight would spill over into an area where there were a lot of children.
The adrenaline kicked in and she did not think about her own safety, she said.
The two women yelled at the brawlers to move away from the children and manoeuvred the men out the mall’s entrance.
‘‘We just kept yelling ‘there are children around’, and we just kept yelling ‘get out’,’’ Kennedy said.
A witness, Nardia Kearns, subsequently came forward, calling for the pair and another woman who helped to be formally recognised for their bravery.
‘‘In spite of the danger of harm to themselves, these women acted to protect vulnerable children and in turn protected the rest of us,’’ Kearns said. ‘‘Without their bravery, it is very likely that the men would have continued to fight each other and ended up hurting innocent bystanders.’’
Waimotu said her only concern was for the bystanders. She does not consider herself a heroine. ‘‘I am finding it quite overwhelming.’’
She noted that they were not the only ones to intervene. ‘‘There was a little white Pa¯ keha¯ lady and she was brave enough to hold on to one of the guys by the T-shirt.’’
Three days later, they had still not heard from police.
Labour list MP Ginny Andersen planned to contact the women to thank them. She would see what options were available to formally recognise their bravery.