Wife dies as she checks on husband
Awoman who was killed as she crawled on the footpath outside the Al Noor Mosque, pleading for help, had run back to the scene to check on her husband.
Ansi Alibava, 25, from Kerala in India, initially escaped the mosque with a group of women and children.
However, she went back for her husband and was shot as she walked past the fence.
The alleged gunman then ran out to Deans Ave, and shot her as she crawled on the ground pleading for help.
Her husband, Abdul Nazer Ponnath Hamsa, spoke to Stuff on Tuesday with friend Renju Scaria George translating.
George said the couple had not been to the mosque for about nine months before Friday because of Hamsa’s work commitments. However, on Friday he was sick, so the couple decided to attend.
They arrived about noon for the preliminary prayer before the main prayer started.
Just as the main prayer was beginning, Hamsa, who was near the emergency exit, heard what sounded like a balloon popping. Seconds later he realised it was gunfire.
‘‘One of the people broke the glass and started to run and all the other people actually fell over him,’’ George said.
Hamsa managed to escape the mosque, jumping over the fence of a nearby property.
A resident was initially reluctant to let him inside fearing he was a terrorist, George said. With blood all over his hands, Hamsa told the man he had no weapons and was let inside to call police.
About 10 minutes later Hamsa decided he needed to go to look for his wife.
‘‘He walked out and then he could see a child and a mum lying on the street, and then his wife next to them so he went to wake her up and she was not responding, all he could see was a pool of blood.