The banality of evil:
Mosque shooter was anything but ‘ordinary’.
It was in his semi-attached two bedroom rental on Dunedin’s Somerville St, the man accused of the Christchurch mosque shootings allegedly hatched plans for a terrorism attack.
The self-proclaimed white supremacist stands accused of bursting into two mosques, killing 50 people and wounding dozens more.
It was an attack that blindsided authorities on both sides of the Tasman, and shocked those who met the quiet and polite Australian who called Dunedin home.
‘‘It is the banality of evil,’’ said one of the man’s immediate neighbours.
The 28-year-old Australian has been charged with murder in relation to New Zealand’s worst massacre.
TWO THINGS STOOD OUT
His Anderson’s Bay flat, where he lived for 19 months, remains under armed guard.
The neighbour, an academic at the University of Otago who declined to be named, said he never suspected the man of evil.
He was polite, quiet and they talked occasionally about a tree on the boundary between their properties.
He recalled seeing the man on the Tuesday before the attack.
He never saw the man with anyone else, or anything out of the ordinary. But in hindsight two things stood out.
The first was that the murder accused always sported a shaved head.
While he did not have any reason to think his neighbour was a skinhead, ‘‘in retrospect I am tempted to say that’’.
‘‘Every time I saw him he had a gym bag, literally every time. ‘‘But what was in the gym bag?’’ It is one of those questions that police, who removed items from the home on Monday, would be now examining.
OBSESSIVE GYM-GOER SUDDENLY QUITS
The accused, who briefly worked as a gym instructor in his home town of Grafton, 600 kilometres north of Sydney, joined Anytime Fitness gym in South Dunedin in August 2017.
Gym-goers recalled him as a person who ‘‘obsessively worked out’’, using free weights and bars to do pull-ups.
That old gym was directly opposite An-Nur Childcare Centre – a Muslim-based early childhood centre in South Dunedin.
Dr Mohammad Alayan, the owner of the centre, which has a sign saying ‘‘all kids welcome’’, was critically injured at the Masjid Al Noor on March 15.
His son, The alleged gunman was ‘‘buffed’’, said a female gym member, recalling him working out in front of mirrors – using bars to do chin-ups – and not interacting with others.
The man did not use his membership to attend other gyms around the country, and when his one-year membership finished in August, the obsessive gym-goer just stopped going.
Other Dunedin gyms said they were not aware of him being a member, and it is understood he took up running around this time.
‘A FRIENDLY LONER’
Local store owners in nearby Musselburgh and near the South Dunedin gym, including a cafe, a bakery, a pharmacy, and a barbershop did not recall seeing the accused.
One Somerville St resident who knew the alleged shooter, has been told by police not to talk to media.
‘‘I knew him as much as anyone,’’ she told Stuff before returning to her property.
Online he described himself as ‘‘just an ordinary white man, 28 years old. Born in Australia to a working class, low-income family’’.
People who interacted with him in Dunedin, and further south at the gun club he belonged to in Milton, described him as a short and stocky man.
The murder accused became noticeably bulkier in the months before the shooting, was always polite and friendly and spoke with an English-sounding accent.
It appears he never worked while in Dunedin. Nor did he study at any local tertiary institutions.
Online, he claimed he made money via BitConnect but in person told several acquaintances he was living off an inheritance.
His father died at the age of 49 in 2010 from cancer.
Another neighbour who shared an internal wall with the alleged shooter described him as ‘‘a bit of a recluse’’.
‘‘He seemed like a loner, but a friendly loner.’’
His Dunedin-based landlord, who declined to be named, said he and wife were ‘‘shocked by what has happened’’.
They described him as a ‘‘model tenant’’.
‘‘He kept the place clean and tidy and paid his rent. He was polite, friendly and accommodating, and willing to allow access to the property at short notice.
‘‘We had no suspicions whatsoever and are devastated by this horrific event.’’
Earlier this week Stuff revealed the alleged gunman had indicated he would finish his lease in mid-March – two weeks before the lease expired.
Pictures from inside the home, which had been earlier listed for $280 a week, show the man kept the property immaculate inside.
That included a desktop computer on a small desk in the unit’s lounge facing the street.
It was likely there that the man, who described himself as ‘‘a private and introverted person’’ wrote his manifesto.
It remains unclear why he chose Dunedin as a place to live, but he gives reference to the city being one of the remotest areas in the world.
While authorities remain tightlipped over the alleged gunman’s travel movements, it is understood he moved to New Zealand in the winter of 2017, moving into Somerville St on August 24.
He also used the city as a base to travel, and appears to have become radicalised while travelling to places as diverse as Western Europe, Pakistan, Turkey and even North Korea. His most recent trip included the far north of Pakistan in October 2018.
During his time in Dunedin, the alleged gunman started to build up his arsenal.
HIS ARSENAL
He was found with at least five weapons after the attacks, and obtained the necessary firearms licence to buy guns in New Zealand in November 2017.
Police confirmed the firearms vetting process was undertaken in Dunedin.
A long-serving contracted vetter for Dunedin Police was approached for comment yesterday morning.
He told Stuff he was not in a position, nor allowed, to comment.
The alleged gunman had notified his landlord about his weapons, and had secure storage.
The accused was interviewed and a security inspection was held at his home address in Dunedin, in October 2017.
A month later, he had his licence, and would start to build his arsenal.
WEAPONS
In late 2017 he bought a bolt-action hunting rifle from Hunting & Fishing in Dunedin.
About the same time he made an online purchase from Gun City, which opened a store in Dunedin last year.
In total he bought four category A firearms and ammunition from Gun City, with the last purchase in March last year.
Early last year he joined the Bruce Rifle Club, near the South Otago town of Milton and about 50 kilometres south of Dunedin.
The club, which opens on Sundays, has been closed since the shooting, with members receiving death threats and suspicious calls. It may not reopen. Members described the Australian as polite and well spoken, but rejected allegations the club was a haven for white supremacy.
‘‘We certainly don’t breed any mass killers,’’ vice-president Scott Williams told after the attack.
THE ATTACK
This week armed police have stood guard at the Muslim-based early childhood centre, as well as Al Huda Mosque in the heart of Dunedin’s student quarter, which the murder accused allegedly intended to attack.
He claimed he wanted to attack the mosque after watching a video on the Facebook page of the Otago Muslim Association.
But after visiting mosques in Christchurch three months ago, it appears his plans changed.
Those plans went unnoticed by New Zealand and Australian security agencies, including social media posts made in the days before the shooting.
On Monday, forensic staff, some armed with shovels, searched his rental property.
In stark contrast to the property’s tidy frontage, which he used to help maintain, the backyard was unkempt and backed on to a steep bush-clad gully.
That property, several blocks from where five members of the Bain family were killed in 1994, was under armed police guard until Wednesday.
Earlier this week forensic staff were at the home, but would not comment further while the investigation was ongoing.
Police previously released a statement saying several items of interest were found but nothing inherently dangerous, after the street was cordoned off in the days after the attack.
Officers have been spotted placing bagged items from the home into police vehicles parked in a shared driveway.
That driveway was once a parking spot for the man’s beige 2005 Subaru Outback station wagon, which he bought from a South Dunedin dealership in August 2017.
He was driving that vehicle when it was rammed by a police car and taken into custody.
The murder accused, who is being segregated from other prisoners and subject to 24-hour observation, will next appear in court on April 5.
Yesterday afternoon, as thousands around the country gathered to pay their respects a week since the attack, a trailer was parked outside the Somerville St property.
The contents of the sparsely furnished flat were piled into the trailer by a contractor – police had earlier removed a computer and clothing.
A desk, a chair, a bed, a fan, a monitor, a suitcase, small kitchen appliances, a banana box marked ‘‘Steve’’, and food including a bottle of beer, a bag of chips, a can of corned beef were all removed. And now?
‘‘Straight to the dump,’’ the contractor said.