CHRISTCHURCH/WELLINGTON: As New Zealanders struggled to cope with the deadly mayhem in Christchurch, stories of heroism have emerged from the tragedy, including a worshiper who chased away the gunman armed only with a credit card machine.
Fifty people were killed on Friday and dozens more injured. But the police and eyewitnesses say a second attack by 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant was partly thwarted by Abdul Aziz, 48, who was born in Afghanistan.
Aziz said he charged at Tarrant outside the Linwood mosque when someone shouted that a gunman had opened fire. Tarrant had already killed dozens at the Al Noor mosque nearby, and on the streets.
“He had on army clothes. I wasn’t sure if he was the good guy or the bad guy. When he swore at me, I knew that he’s not the good guy,” Aziz told Reuters in an interview.
When he realised the mosque was being attacked, he ran towards Tarrant, picking up a credit card machine as a makeshift weapon.
Tarrant ran back to his car and got another gun.
Aziz said he threw the credit card machine, ducking between the cars as Tarrant opened fire.
He then picked up a gun dropped by Tarrant and pulled the trigger, but it was empty: “I was screaming at the guy, come over here, come over here – I just wanted to put his focus on me.”
Aziz said Tarrant went inside the mosque, and he followed, eventually confronting the gunman again.
“When he saw me with the shotgun in my hands, he dropped the gun and ran away toward his car. I chased him,” he said.
When I came back in the mosque I could see that everybody was very frightened and trying to cover,” Aziz said. “I told them, ‘Brother, you are safe now, get up, he’s gone. He’s just run away.’ And then after that everybody started crying.”
Footage of the attack on one of the mosques was broadcast live on Facebook.
More heroes came to light as investigators pieced together the incident.
Naeem Rashid, 50, was seen lunging at Tarrant in the livestream video from the Al Noor mosque. Rashid, from Abbottabad, Pakistan, and a New Zealand resident for nine years, was in the mosque with his 21-year-old son. Both were killed in the attack.
He was shot protecting others, his sister-in-law, Naema Khan, told the news portal stuff.co.nz.
Family members had been calling from all over the world to say “he will be our hero,” she said. (Reuters)
