Shooter gets maximum sentence
NEW ZEALAND: The white supremacist who slaughtered 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the first time the maximum available sentence has been imposed.
Judge Cameron Mander said the crimes committed by 29-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant were so wicked that a lifetime in jail could not begin to atone for them. He said they had caused enormous loss and hurt and stemmed from a warped and malignant ideology.
“Your actions were inhuman,” Mander said. “You deliberately killed a 3-year-old infant by shooting him in the head as he clung to the leg of his father.”
After the sentence was announced, survivors raised hands and fists in celebration and greeted supporters waving signs with painted hearts and carrying roses outside the court building.
The March 2019 attacks targeting people praying at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch shocked New Zealand and prompted new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. They also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook.
During the four-day sentencing hearing, 90 survivors and family members recounted the horror of that day and the trauma they continued to feel.
Temel Atacocugu, who survived being shot nine times during the attack at the Al Noor mosque, said he felt relieved at the sentence.
“Finally we can breathe freely, and we feel secure, and my kids feel secure. The justice system has locked up this ideology forever,” Atacocugu said.
Tarrant in March pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism, reversing his earlier not guilty pleas.
He fired his lawyers and told the judge he didn’t wish to speak at his sentencing. A standby lawyer appointed by the court told the judge that Tarrant did not oppose the maximum sentence.
The judge said that Tarrant recently told a psychiatrist that he now rejects his extremist views and considers his attacks “abhorrent and irrational”.