MOMENTS OF HEROISM
Afghan man Abdul Aziz partly thwarts gunman’s second attack
AS New Zealanders struggled to cope with the deadly mayhem in Christchurch, stories of heroism have emerged from the tragedy, including a worshipper who chased away the gunman armed only with a credit card machine.
Fifty people were killed on Friday and dozens more injured.
But the police and eyewitnesses say a second attack by 28-yearold Brenton Tarrant was partly thwarted by Abdul Aziz, 48, who was born in Afghanistan.
Aziz said he charged at Tarrant outside the Linwood mosque when someone shouted that a gunman had opened fire.
Tarrant had aldozens ready killed at the Al Noor mosque nearby, and on the streets.
“He had on army clothes. I wasn’t sure if he was the good guy or the bad guy. When he swore at me, I knew that he’s not the good guy,” Aziz said.
When he realised the mosque was being attacked, he ran towards Tarrant, picking up a credit card machine as a makeshift weapon.
Tarrant ran back to his car and got another gun. Aziz said he threw the credit card machine, ducking between the cars as Tarrant opened fire.
He then picked up a gun dropped by Tarrant and pulled the trigger, but it was empty: “I was screaming at the guy, come over here, come over here — I just wanted to put his focus on me.”
Aziz said Tarrant went inside the mosque, and he followed, eventually confronting the gun- man again.
“When he saw me with the shotgun in my hands, he dropped the gun and ran away towards his car. I chased him,” he said.
“He sat in his car and with the shotgun in my hands, I threw it through his window like an arrow. He just swore at me and took off.”
Aziz said four of his children were with him at the mosque when the attack occurred.
Nearly 100 Muslim worshippers who had taken cover in the mosque as the rampage unfolded were left unharmed.
“When I came back in the mosque I could see that everybody was very frightened and trying to cover,” Aziz said.
“I told them, ‘Brother, you are safe now, get up, he’s gone. He’s just run away.’ And then after that everybody started crying.”
The attack is the worst ever peacetime mass killing in New Zealand.
Tarrant was arrested within 36 minutes after the attack started and charged with murder on Saturday, even as the death toll continued to rise and families waited to bury their dead.
Footage of the attack on one of the mosques was broadcast live on Facebook.
Under New Zealand’s contempt rules, there are limits on what can be published about Tarrant, to preserve his right to a fair trial.
Aziz is from Kabul, Afghanistan, but left the wartorn country several years ago.
He has been in Christchurch for two and a half years and owns a furniture shop.
More heroes came to light as investigators pieced together the incident.
Naeem Rashid, 50, was seen lunging at Tarrant in the livestream video from the Al Noor mosque.
Rashid, from Abbottabad, Pakistan, and a New Zealand resident for nine years, was in the mosque with his 21-year-old son. Both