‘An intense guy who had issues’
Until about 10 years ago, Brenton Harrison Tarrant lived in his family’s modest two-storey house in the Australian riverside suburb of Grafton — a town about 644km north of Sydney, population 10,000 or so.
New South Wales state police commissioner Mick Fuller said Tarrant’s family contacted police after seeing media reports of the shootings. Fuller said Tarrant had spent little time in Australia during the past four years.
Tarrant’s mother, Sharon, was an English teacher from Quirindi in northwestern NSW and his father, Rodney, an avid marathon runner from Great Marlow north of Grafton.
But everything would unravel after Rodney and Sharon separated, with Brenton later finding his father dead, having taking his own life in 2010 at age 49.
Tarrant attended Grafton High and after leaving he pursued his love of fitness, studying to become a personal trainer.
Tarrant was not on the radar of police — his only brush with the law was for four traffic infringements.
However, he was on the radar of local mental health workers.
A senior doctor from the area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Tarrant was known among counsellors for being “intense”.
“They painted a picture of an intense guy who had issues with minorities, particularly immigrants and women,” the doctor said.
Tracey Gray, who hired Tarrant to work for her as a personal trainer in 2009 at the local Big River Squash and Fitness Centre, said he had been a “dedicated” worker.
She told that he worked there for several years and left Grafton in about 2012 to travel in Asia and Europe before settling in New
Scott Williams , Bruce Rifle Club
Zealand.
“I think something must have changed in him during the years he spent travelling overseas,” she said.
“He would train a lot, and some could say quite excessively, but then he was passionate about health and fitness and making those changes in his personal space . . . I honestly can’t believe that somebody I have probably had daily dealings with and had shared conversations and interacted with would be capable of something to this extreme.”