FACE OF EVIL
Immig-hating gunman aimed to stir fear, violence Grim death toll hits 49 as world condemns attack
The racist madman who methodically slaughtered 49 people in two mosques in New Zealand appeared in court Saturday and apparently flashed a white-power hand gesture.
Brenton Tarrant, 28, was marched into court wearing handcuffs and a white prison jumpsuit and made an “OK” sign with his fingers, according to a photo published by the New Zealand Herald.
The gesture has been associated with white nationalists after gaining traction as an internet hoax.
Tarrant was slapped with only one murder charge during his first court appearance, but many more charges are expected to follow.
The Australian citizen is accused of strapping a camera on his head and livestreaming his senseless slaughter Friday at mosques in Christchurch, a city on New Zealand's South Island.
“This can now only be described as a terrorist attack,” New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said after the spasm of violence.
Speaking at a news conference Saturday, she said the gunman carried out his carnage while armed to the teeth with two semiautomatic weapons, two shotguns and a “lever-action” firearm. She said he had a gun license acquired in November 2017.
“I can tell you one thing right now: Our laws will change,” she vowed.
She said a total of three people were arrested.
In total, 41 people died at Masjid Al Noor Mosque, seven people died at Linwood Masjid Mosque and one died at a hospital, she said.
Amid the grief and anguish generated by the shooting spree, stories of heroism emerged.
One of the survivors, Syed Mazharuddin, said he watched the heavily armed gunman shoot indiscriminately at his innocent victims until one of his friends “saw an opportunity and pounced.”
Mazharuddin told the New Zealand Herald that the friend managed to take control of one of the shooter's weapons.
“The hero tried to chase
and he couldn't find the trigger in the gun,” Mazharuddin told the Herald. “He ran behind him but there were people waiting for him in the car and he fled.”
Another man, Omar Nabi, was not at the scene, but said he was told his father died trying to shield another person from the bullets.
Daoub Nabi, the 71-yearold dad, was a generous man who would often go to the airport to greet incoming refugees, his son told NBC News.
Friday's death toll is a major abnormality, surpassing the country's typical annual rate for firearm killings and overall murders. The attack comes a year after New Zealand saw its lowest murder rate in four decades — 35 — and following years of single-digit gun homicides.
In a country of 4.8 million residents, police data show the country saw about seven murders for every million people in 2017. Between 2012 and 2016, firearm deaths ranged from four to nine a year, according to a 2018 report by New Zealand authorities.
New Zealand's gun regulations changed after a 1990 massacre in Aramoana, where a man killed 13 people in a shooting followed by an arson attack. That had been the country's deadliest mass shooting before Friday's carnage. The Aramoana case led to restrictions on militarystyle semiautomatic weapons, stricter storage requirements and other regulations.
Retired FBI special agent James Gagliano, now a law enforcement analyst for CNN, told the network Friday morning that the country's gun laws are pretty strict, but not as strict as Australia's.
“Clearly there will be a lot of questions how this gunman got his hand on so many weapons,” he said.
He captured all his carnage on camera.
Facebook, Twitter and Google scrambled to take down the gunman's video, which was widely available on social media for hours after the bloodbath.
In the video, the killer spends more than two minutes inside the mosque spraying terrified worshipers with gunfire. He then walks outside, where he shoots at people on the sidewalk.
Children's screams can be heard in the distance as he returns to his car to get another rifle. He walks back into the mosque, where there are at least two dozen people lying on the ground.
At the Al Noor mosque, witness Len Peneha said he saw a man dressed in black and wearing a helmet with some kind of device on top enter the house of worship and then heard dozens of shots, followed by people running out in terror.
Peneha, who lives next door, said the gunman ran out of the mosque, dropped what appeared to be a semiautomatic weapon in his driveway and fled. Peneha then went into the mosque to help the victims.
"I saw dead people everywhere. There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque," he said. "I don't understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. It's ridiculous."