Suspected gunman charged with murder
PM Arden vows gun reforms after terrorist attacks on two mosques left 49 dead, dozens wounded
CHRISTCHURCH/ WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder yesterday after 49 people were killed and dozens wounded in mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques.
Tarrant, handcuffed and wearing a white prison suit, stood silently in the Christchurch District Court where he was remanded without a plea.
He is due back in court on April 5 and police said he was likely to face further charges.
The attack, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern labelled as terrorism, was the worst ever peacetime mass killing in New Zealand and the country had raised its security threat level to the highest.
Tarrant has been described as a suspected white supremacist, based on his social media activity.
Footage of the attack on one of the mosques was broadcast live on Facebook, and a “manifesto” denouncing immigrants as “invaders” was also posted online via links to related social media accounts.
The video showed a man driving to the Al Noor mosque, entering it and shooting randomly at people with a semi-automatic rifle with high-capacity magazines. Worshippers, possibly dead or wounded, lay on the floor, the video showed.
At one stage the shooter returns to his car, changes weapons, reenters the mosque and again begins shooting. The camera attached to his head recording the massacre follows the barrel of his weapon, like some macabre video game.
Forty-one people were killed at the Al Noor mosque.
One man who said he was at the Al Noor mosque told media the gunman burst in as worshippers were kneeling for prayers.
“He came and started shooting everyone in the mosque, everywhere,” said Ahmad AlMahmoud. He said he and others escaped by breaking through a glass door.
Police said the alleged shooter took seven minutes to travel to the second mosque in the suburb of Linwood, where seven people were killed. No images have emerged from the second mosque.
Tarrant was arrested in a car, which police said was carrying improvised explosive devices, 36 minutes after they were first called.
“The offender was mobile, there were two other firearms in the vehicle that the offender was in, and it absolutely was his intention to continue with his attack,” Ardern told reporters in Christchurch.
The visiting Bangladesh cricket team was arriving for prayers at one of the mosques when the shooting started but all members were safe, a team coach told Reuters.
Two other people were in custody and police said they were seeking to understand whether they were involved in any way.
None of those arrested had a criminal history or were on watchlists in New Zealand or Australia.
Twelve operating theatres worked through the night on the more than 40 people wounded, said hospital authorities. Thirty six people were still being treated yesterday, of which 11 remained in intensive care. One victim died in hospital.
“The wounds from gunshots are often quite significant,” Christchurch Hospital's Chief of Surgery Greg Robertson told reporters. “Many of the people require multiple trips to the theatre to deal with the complex series of injuries they have.”