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'Come here!': the man who chased away the Christchurch shooter 'Come over here!': the man who chased away the Christchurch shooter
(about 8 hours later)
When the gunman advanced toward the mosque, killing those in his path, Abdul Aziz did not hide. Instead, he picked up the first thing he could find, a credit card scanning machine, and ran outside screaming: “Come here!” A worshipper at the site of the second Christchurch mosque attack has spoken of how he chased away the gunman armed only with a credit card machine.
Aziz, 48, has been called a hero for likely preventing more deaths during Friday prayers at the Linwood mosque in Christchurch after scaring the gunman off. Abdul Aziz, who was born in Afghanistan, was inside the Linwood mosque with four of his children for Friday prayers when someone shouted that a gunman had opened fire.
But Aziz, whose four sons and dozens of others remained in the mosque while he faced off with the gunman, said he believed it was what anyone would have done. “He had on army clothes,” Aziz told Reuters on Sunday. “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.”
The gunman killed 50 people after attacking two mosques in the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history. When he realised the mosque was being attacked, the 48-year-old ran towards the gunman, picking up a credit card machine as a makeshift weapon. After the gunman had run back to his car to get another gun, Aziz said he threw the credit card machine, ducking between the cars to avoid gunfire.
Christchurch attack: Ardern says 'manifesto' sent to office minutes before massacre He then picked up a gun dropped by the attacker 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.
The gunman is believed to have killed at least 41 people at the Al Noor mosque before driving about 5km (3 miles) across town and attacking the Linwood mosque, where he killed seven more people. One person died later in a hospital, and police announced Sunday that a 50th body had been found. Aziz said the gunman went inside the mosque, and he followed, eventually confronting him again.
Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged with one count of murder in the killings. Police said it was likely more charges would follow. “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. “He sat in his car and with the shotgun in my hands, I threw it through his window like an arrow. He just swore at me and took off.”
Latef Alabi, the Linwood mosque’s acting imam, said he believed the death toll would have been far higher if it had not been for Aziz’s actions. Aziz has been called a hero by the mosque’s acting imam, Latef Alabi, who said he believed the death toll would have been far higher if it had not been for Aziz’s actions.
Alabi said he heard a voice outside the mosque at about 1:55pm on Friday and stopped the prayer he was leading and looked out of the window. He saw a man in black military-style gear and a helmet holding a large gun, and assumed it was a police officer. Alabi said he stopped prayer when he looked out of the window and spotted a man in black military-style gear and a helmet holding a large gun, mistaking him for a police officer. Then he saw two bodies and “realised this is something else”.
Then he saw two bodies and heard the gunman yelling obscenities. Alabi told his congregation of about 80 to get down. “Then this brother [Aziz] came over. He went after him, and he managed to overpower him, and that’s how we were saved,” Alabi told Associated Press. “Otherwise, if he managed to come into the mosque, then we would all probably be gone.”
“I realised this is something else. This is a killer,” he said. Aziz is from Kabul, Afghanistan, but left the war-torn country several years ago. He has been in Christchurch for two and a half years and owns a furniture shop.
He then shouted at the congregation of more than 80 to get down. They hesitated. A shot rang out, a window shattered and a body fell, and people began to realise it was for real. “When I came back in the mosque, I could see that everybody was very frightened and trying to cover,” he 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.”
“Then this brother [Aziz] came over. He went after him, and he managed to overpower him, and that’s how we were saved,” Alabi said. “Otherwise, if he managed to come into the mosque, then we would all probably be gone.” After Aziz confronted him, the gunman was chased down by two police officers who blocked his car and captured him. “Those two police officers acted with absolute courage,” Police commissioner Mike Bush said at a news conference on Sunday. “They have prevented further deaths and risked their own lives to do so.”
Aziz, originally from Afghanistan, said he had run outside of the mosque hoping to distract the attacker. He said the gunman ran back to his car to get another gun, and Aziz hurled the credit card machine at him. More heroes have come to light as investigators pieced together the incident.
He said he could hear his two youngest sons, aged 11 and 5, urging him to come back inside. Naeem Rashid, 50, was seen lunging at the gunman in the livestream video from the initial attack on 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.
'It's not fair to blame us': aisles at Gun City are busy in wake of Christchurch attack Reuters contributed to this report
The gunman returned, firing, he said. Aziz then said he ran, weaving through cars parked in the driveway, which prevented the gunman from getting a clean shot. Then Aziz spotted a gun the gunman had abandoned and picked it up, pointed it and squeezed the trigger. It was empty.
He said the gunman ran back to the car for a second time, likely to grab yet another weapon.
“He gets into his car and I just got the gun and threw it on his window like an arrow and blasted his window,” he said.
The windshield shattered: “That’s why he got scared.”
He said the gunman drove away and online videos indicate police officers managed to force the car from the road and drag out the suspect soon after.
Originally from Kabul, Aziz said he left as a refugee when he was a boy and lived for more than 25 years in Australia before moving to New Zealand a couple of years ago.
“I’ve been to a lot of countries and this is one of the beautiful ones,” he said. And, he always thought, a peaceful one as well.
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