Wife dies as she checks on husband
Awoman who was killed as she crawled on the footpath outside the AlNoor 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.
‘‘One of the guys standing there said ‘who’s that?’, and he said ‘it’s my wife’; and then [the other man] said ‘she’s dead’.’’
Hamsa sat beside his wife for about a minute before police arrived and told him it was not safe and he needed to leave.
‘‘He was completely blank,’’ George said when Hamsa was asked about his emotions at the time. ‘‘He thought she might have some injuries but the moment the other person said she was dead, he was completely blank and he was not sure what he was doing.’’
Hamsa was struggling to sleep in the days after the terror attack and was now taking sleeping pills. He does not want to go back to his home and is sleeping on a mattress on the floor in one of George’s rooms.
Hamsa and Alibava married 21⁄2 years ago in their hometown of Kerala. Coming to New Zealand to study was ‘‘one of her biggest dreams’’, George said.
Alibava went to Lincoln University to pursue a master of agribusiness management.
She recently completed her degree while the couple also financially supported their families back home.
Alibava was ‘‘a very bubbly, loveable person’’ who loved to read, George said.
George, who watched the video of the terror attack, said the footage of Alibava being killed was ‘‘shocking’’.
‘‘A man with a heart can’t do that. If someone is asking for help, you should be helping that person rather than trying to take their life off them.
‘‘I watched the whole thing but the last bit, it’s something you never want to think about – she was brutally killed.’’
Hamsa is now waiting for news from police as to when he can see Alibava while also trying to get permanent residency – his wife was the primary applicant on their visa.
‘‘We’re talking to Immigration NZ to see if we can get him to stay here and get along with their dreams and look after her and his family,’’ George said.