Christchurch mosque shootings

Christchurch mosque shootings
Part of Terrorism in New Zealand
The Al Noor Mosque in 2006
Locations of the Al Noor Mosque (left) and the Linwood Islamic Centre
Location	Christchurch, New Zealand
Coordinates	43.5329°S 172.6118°E / -43.5329; 172.6118 (Al Noor Mosque) 43.53239°S 172.67255°E / -43.53239; 172.67255 (Linwood Islamic Centre)
Date	15 March 2019 (2019-03-15) 1:40 pm (NZDT; UTC+13)
Target	Muslims
Attack type	Mass shooting, terrorist attack
Weapons	Two semi-automatic rifles, two shotguns, one lever-action rifle, undetonated car bombs
Deaths	50 42 at the Al Noor Mosque 7 at the Linwood Islamic Centre 1 later at Christchurch Hospital
Injured	50
Motive	Far-right extremism Islamophobia White supremacy Eco-fascism

The Christchurch mosque shootings were two consecutive terrorist mass shootings at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, during Friday Prayer on 15 March 2019. The attacks began at the Al Noor Mosque in the suburb of Riccarton at 1:40 pm, and continued at the Linwood Islamic Centre at about 1:55 pm.

The attacks killed 50 people and injured 50 more. A 28-year-old Australian man, described in media reports as a white supremacist and part of the "alt-right", was arrested and charged with murder. The attacks have been linked to an increase in white supremacism and alt-right extremism globally observed since the mid-2010s. The suspect published a manifesto and live-streamed the first attack on Facebook Live.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, referred to the attacks as "one of New Zealand's darkest days". Politicians and world leaders condemned the attacks, with some attributing the attack to rising Islamophobia. It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern New Zealand history.

Attacks

Al Noor Mosque, Riccarton

The gunman began shooting worshippers at the Al Noor Mosque on Deans Avenue, Riccarton, at around 1:40 pm. Police received the first emergency call at 1:41 pm. Between three and five hundred people may have been inside the mosque attending Friday Prayer at the time of the shooting. A neighbour of the mosque told reporters that he saw the gunman flee and drop what appeared to be a firearm in the driveway. The witness said the gunman appeared to be wearing military-style clothing.

The gunman live-streamed the first 17 minutes of the attack on Facebook Live, starting with the drive to the mosque and ending with the drive away. Moments before the shooting, the gunman played a traditional marching song of the British military called "The British Grenadiers", "Gas Gas Gas", a song by Italian musician Manuel Karamori used in the anime adaptation of the manga series Initial D, and "Serbia Strong", a Serb nationalist song from the Bosnian War (1992–1995) celebrating Radovan Karadžić, who was found guilty of genocide against Bosnian Muslims. Just before the shooting, the gunman appeared to be greeted by one of the worshippers, who said "Hello, brother" and who was amongst the first people to be killed.

The gunman spent several minutes inside the mosque, shooting attendees indiscriminately. He killed three people near the entrance, and many others inside a larger room. During the attack, a worshipper, Naeem Rashid, charged at the gunman but was shot, and later died in hospital. The gunman approached wounded victims, firing at them multiple times. He then left the mosque and fired on people outside. He went on to retrieve another weapon from his vehicle before returning to the mosque to murder more victims, many of whom were already wounded and unable to escape. The gunman then exited the mosque for a second time and killed a woman near the footpath as she pleaded for help. He returned to his car and fled the scene shortly thereafter, having spent about six minutes at the mosque. The gunman shot other civilians in the area and drove away at high speed, heading in the direction of the Linwood Islamic Centre.

Linwood Islamic Centre

A second series of shootings commenced at about 1:55 pm at the Linwood Islamic Centre, a mosque 5 kilometres (3 mi) east from Al Noor. The gunman shot several people outside the mosque, killing seven.

The mosque's acting imam credited a worshipper named Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah with stopping the attack before the gunman could enter the building. Wahabzadah told media that he had taken a credit card reader and ran at the gunman hoping to distract him from attacking people in the mosque. When the gunman retreated, Wahabzadah threw the credit card reader at him. The gunman took a firearm from his car and fired at Wahabzadah, who took cover among nearby cars and retrieved an empty shotgun the gunman had dropped. The gunman continued firing at the mosque. When the gunman returned to his car again, Wahabzadah threw the shotgun and shattered a car window or the windscreen. The gunman then drove away.

Victims

The attack killed 50 people: 42 at Al Noor Mosque, seven at the Linwood Islamic Centre and one who died in Christchurch Hospital. The ages of those killed ranged from 2 to 71. From Police Commissioner Mike Bush's update, as of 10:00 am on 17 March 2019, 50 people were injured, 36 people were being treated for gunshot wounds at Christchurch Hospital, two of whom were in a serious condition, with one child at Starship children's hospital in Auckland. National futsal player and IT entrepreneur Atta Elayyan was among those killed.

In the wake of the attacks, dozens of people remain missing and several diplomatic offices and foreign ministries released statements concerning the number of victims from their nations. The police have requested missing people, or those listed as missing, to go online and register themselves as safe on the Restoring Family Links website, managed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. A list of missing people has been published by New Zealand Red Cross, and includes nationals of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Suspect

Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, is accused of carrying out the attack. Early reports indicated "a multiple, simultaneous attack", but later only a single suspect was implicated. He was arrested 36 minutes after the first emergency call. Mobile phone footage showed his car had been rammed against the kerb by a police car before his arrest at gunpoint. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that the suspect charged had been planning to continue the attack.

At the time of the attack, Tarrant's place of residence was Andersons Bay, Dunedin. He was a member of a local gun club and practised shooting at its range. He had worked as a personal trainer in Grafton, New South Wales, from 2009 to 2011. Around 2012, he started visiting many countries in Asia and Europe. Authorities in Bulgaria and Turkey are investigating his visits to their respective nations. He became obsessed with terrorist attacks committed by Islamic extremists in 2016 and 2017, started planning an attack about two years prior to the shootings, and chose his targets three months in advance. Security officials suspect he had come into contact with far-right organisations about two years before the shooting while visiting European nations.

Weapons

According to Ardern, Tarrant acquired a gun licence in November 2017 and began buying guns and ammunition legally. Police recovered five guns at the scene – two semi-automatic weapons, two shotguns and a lever-action firearm. The guns and magazines used were covered in white writing that named historical events, people, and motifs related to historical conflicts, wars, and battles between Muslims and European Christians as well as the names of recent Islamic terrorist attack victims and the names of far-right attackers like Josué Estébanez and Luca Traini.

The police also found two improvised explosive devices attached to a car, which were defused by the New Zealand Defence Force. No explosives were found on the gunman.

Manifesto

Tarrant recorded his beliefs in a 73-page manifesto titled "The Great Replacement", a reference to the Great Replacement and white genocide conspiracy theories. It expresses several anti-immigrant sentiments including hate speech against migrants, white supremacist rhetoric, and calls for all non-European immigrants in Europe who he claims are "invading his land" to be removed. The author also describes himself as an ethno-nationalist.

In the manifesto, that opens with Dylan Thomas' poem Do not go gentle into that good night, the author names dozens of people from around the world, ranging from politicians whose ideas he supports to terrorists and murderers whose actions he applauds. In particular he cites Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik as an inspiration and claims to have been in "brief contact" with Breivik. He also calls for the assassination of several politicians he disagrees with. The manifesto displays neo-Nazi symbols like the Black Sun and the Odin's cross. However, the author denies being a Nazi professes to be an "eco-fascist" and a "kebab removalist", in reference to a meme regarding the genocide of Bosnian Muslims by the Bosnian Serb army.

Nine minutes before the attacks, he emailed the manifesto to over 30 recipients, including the Prime Minister's office and several media outlets. He also shared links to the manifesto on Twitter and 8chan immediately before the attack. His manifesto said he began planning an attack two years earlier and chose the Christchurch location three months earlier. His document stated that he targeted Muslims as a form of "revenge against Islam for 1,300 years of war and devastation that it has brought upon the people of the West and other peoples of the world".

Some journalists who analyzed the manifesto believed it was a front, and instead, along with the attack, designed to troll and create discourse about certain groups and people. It was suggested that memes within the manifesto (such as the Navy Seal copypasta, which lists accomplishments such as having "over 300 confirmed kills") could be misinterpreted by the media. One investigator considered the manifesto a trap for the media, stating that it was "laid for journalists searching for the meaning behind this horrific crime. There is truth in there, and valuable clues to the shooter’s radicalization, but it is buried beneath a great deal of, for lack of a better word, 'shitposting.'" For example, just before carrying out the attack, the gunman said "remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie", a meme referring to the popular Swedish YouTube personality Felix Kjellberg who goes by the alias PewDiePie. Kjellberg posted on Twitter, "I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person," and gave his condolences to those affected; similarly, those who popularised the "subscribed to PewDiePie" meme wanted to see the meme's spread stopped as it was being used as a call to arms by the attacker rather than as the joke it was started as. Because Kjellberg has tens of millions of followers on social media, alongside the then-current popularity of the meme, this served the purpose of spreading news about the attack further to draw more interest in it. Journalists saw that a similar effect could take place, due to the manifesto's mention of prominent people who have drawn ideological criticism, to attract media coverage and partially blame them for the attack.

Criminal case

Tarrant appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Saturday 16 March, where he was charged with murder and remanded in custody. During his court appearance, he smiled at the media and made an inverted OK gesture; The case was transferred to the High Court, with his next appearance scheduled for 5 April 2019. where he will conduct his own defence having dismissed the duty lawyer provided to represent him.

Other arrests

On the day of the attacks, authorities stated that four suspects were arrested. Two days after the attack, Police Commissioner Mike Bush stated that separate from the main suspect, the three other people arrested did not appear to be involved in the attacks. Police arrested a woman and a man after finding a firearm in a vehicle in which they were travelling together. The woman was released uncharged while the man was held in custody, charged with a firearms offence. An 18-year-old man was arrested after he armed himself with the intention to "assist children in the area"; he will appear in court on 18 March 2019.

Additionally, a 30-year-old man claimed he was arrested when he arrived at Papanui High School to pick up his 13-year-old brother-in-law. He was wearing camouflage clothing, which he said he habitually wore. He also said police gave him a verbal warning for disorderly behaviour.

Aftermath

Emergency services response

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said that police were at the first mosque within minutes of the incident being reported at 1:42 pm. In response to criticism that police were too slow to react to the attacks, the police defended the 36 minutes it took to arrest Tarrant. District Commander John Price said "That is an incredibly fast response time. You had a mobile offender across a large metropolitan city."

St. John Ambulance sent 20 ambulances and other vehicles to the mosques. Most of the wounded were taken to Christchurch Hospital. Forty-eight people with gunshot wounds, including young children, were treated at the hospital, with some taken to other hospitals within Christchurch and nationally. Canterbury District Health Board activated its mass casualty plan. Paramedics describe a 'river of blood' coming out of the mosque and having to step over bodies to collect the wounded.

Authorities advised all mosques in the country to close until further notice and sent police to secure various sites in Christchurch. All Air New Zealand Link services departing Christchurch Airport were cancelled as a precaution, due to the absence of security screening at the regional terminal. Security was increased at Parliament in Wellington, including the cancellation of public tours. In Dunedin, the Armed Offenders Squad searched a house and cordoned off part of the surrounding street in Andersons Bay after the shooter indicated on social media that he had originally planned to target the city's Al Huda Mosque.

Government response

The Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Co-ordination was convened to coordinate the government response. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who had just left a school climate strike rally in New Plymouth, returned with Minister for Security and Intelligence Andrew Little to her hotel to give a press statement. Ardern cancelled all public engagements scheduled for that day, including opening the WOMAD festival. She then boarded a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane to fly to Wellington to join official meetings taking place at the Beehive. Minister for Security and Intelligence Andrew Little remained in New Plymouth and opened the WOMAD festival alongside Member of Parliament Kiri Allan. Notably, while in New Plymouth directly after the attack, Andrew Little had no police or diplomatic protection service protection.

For the first time in New Zealand history, the terrorism threat level was raised to high. Flags are also being flown at half-mast on all government buildings nationwide, most notably the Beehive.

Other responses

Media and members of the public outside the Christchurch Botanic Gardens on 18 March 2019.

Schools near the mosques were locked down during event. School strikers at the Global School Strike rally in Cathedral Square, near the two attacks, were advised by police to either seek refuge in public buildings or go home. The University of Otago postponed its 150th anniversary street parade, which was scheduled for 16 March, in response to security concerns.

The third test cricket match between New Zealand and Bangladesh, scheduled to be played at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch from 16 March, was cancelled because of security concerns. The Bangladesh team were about to attend the Al Noor Mosque and were moments from entering the building when the incident began. The players then fled on foot to Hagley Oval. Two days later, Canterbury withdrew from their match against Wellington in the Plunket Shield cricket tournament. Likewise the Super Rugby match between the Crusaders, based in Christchurch, and Highlanders, based in Dunedin, due to be played the next day was cancelled as "a mark of respect for the events". After the attack a number the Crusaders team were criticised for their name, which derives from the medieval Crusades against Muslims.

Two concerts scheduled to be held in Christchurch on 17 March, one by singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, the other by thrash-metal band Slayer, were also cancelled. The Polynesian cultural festival Polyfest was cancelled after the shootings, with security concerns cited as the reason. The music and cultural festival WOMAD went ahead in New Plymouth despite the attacks, with armed police stationed around the festival perimeter, inside the event, and outside artists' hotels.

The mosques involved in the attacks, and others around the country and the world, have been the focus of vigils, messages, and floral tributes from the community. The mayor of Christchurch, Lianne Dalziel, encouraged people to lay flowers outside the city's Botanic Gardens on Rolleston Avenue.

An online fundraiser started to support victims and their families has, as of 20 March 2019, raised over NZ$6.7 million. Together with other fundraisers, a total of $8.4m million was raised for the victims and their families, as of 20 March 2019. The Prime Minister also reiterated that those injured or killed in the shootings and their immediate families are covered by the country's accident compensation scheme, ACC, which offers compensation for lost income and a $10,000 funeral grant, among other benefits.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, announced that Naeem Rashid, who confronted the gunman and was killed, would be posthumously honoured with a national award for his courage during the attack on the Al Noor mosque.

Video

The live stream was re-posted on many video streaming services including LiveLeak and YouTube. Police, Muslim-advocacy groups and government agencies urged anyone who finds the footage to take it down or report it. The New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification quickly classified the video as "objectionable", making it an offence to distribute, copy, or exhibit the video within the country. An 18-year-old man appeared in Christchurch District Court on 18 March faced with a charge of distributing the video and with a second charge of making an objectionable publication by posting a photo of Al Noor Mosque with the message "target acquired" and other chat messages "inciting extreme violence". Some media organisations in Australia and tabloid newspaper websites in the United Kingdom broadcast parts of the live stream, up to the point the gunman entered the building, despite pleas from New Zealand police not to show it. Sky Television New Zealand temporarily stopped its rebroadcast of Sky News Australia after that network showed the footage, and stated they were working with Sky News Australia to prevent further displays of the video. At least three Internet service providers in the country have taken steps to block access to 8chan and other sites related to the attack, and have temporarily blocked other sites such as 4chan, LiveLeak, and Mega, where the video was hosted, until they comply with requests to take down copies of the video. Additionally, at least three sites—8chan, Kiwi Farms, and Voat—are under investigation by New Zealand authorities for hosting material relating to the attack.

Social media sites including Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Twitter stated that they were working diligently to remove the video of the attack from their platforms and would also remove anything supporting the attacks; According to Facebook, the original video from the attacker had been viewed less than 200 times before the service was notified of the video's content; Facebook subsequently removed the video within minutes of notification, and created a digital hash fingerprint to detect further uploads, which by this point were being propagated across many social media sites. Facebook's New Zealand operations said that within the 24 hours after the attack, they had blocked 1.5 million uploads of the video and images, including edited versions, from their service, most blocked through the digital fingerprint to prevent public visibility. Reddit banned subreddits named "WatchPeopleDie" and "Gore", stating the threads had glorified the attacks in violation of user agreements. Despite this response, New Zealand officials as well as other world leaders have tasked Facebook, YouTube, and other major social sites to take more steps to be responsible for extremist content that is posted to their sites.

Reactions

World leaders

Prime Minister Ardern visited members of the Muslim community at the Phillipstown Community Hub in Christchurch the day after the attacks.

Prime Minister Ardern called the incident an "act of extreme and unprecedented violence" and said "this is one of New Zealand's darkest days." She also described it as a well-planned terrorist attack. Commissioner Bush echoed the prime minister in saying that it "is now classified as a terrorist event." Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel stated that she never thought "anything like this" could happen in New Zealand, saying "everyone is shocked". Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, said she was "deeply saddened" by the attack.

Politicians and world leaders condemned the attacks, with some attributing the attack to rising Islamophobia.

Alt-right

The gunman cited Donald Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose" (see Racial views of Donald Trump), but denounced his leadership and policies. When President Trump was asked if he thought "white nationalists were a growing threat around the world", he replied "I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. It's certainly a terrible thing."

The United Kingdom's domestic intelligence service, MI5, launched an enquiry into the shooter's links to the British far-right.

New Zealand-based white-supremacist groups were quick to condemn the attack and distance themselves from the perpetrator. However a number of alt-right leaders overseas and online posters supported the attack, hailing the shooter as a "hero" and calling the violence a part of an ongoing worldwide ethnic conflict between white and non-white people. Andrew Anglin, the founder of the website The Daily Stormer, stated that out of the mass shootings he had seen "this is by far the funniest one of them all" and that the shooter was already a "folk hero" to many.

Gun laws

For broader coverage of this topic, see Gun laws in New Zealand.

Gun laws in New Zealand came under scrutiny in the aftermath, specifically the legality of military-style semi-automatic weapons compared to Australia which banned them after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. As gun-policy specialist Philip Alpers noted, "New Zealand is almost alone with the United States in not registering 96 percent of its firearms ... one can assume that the ease of obtaining these firearms may have been a factor in his decision to commit the crime in Christchurch." The New Zealand auction website Trade Me has banned the sale of semi-automatic weapons on its platform.

Prime Minister Ardern announced: "Our gun laws will change, now is the time ... People will be seeking change, and I am committed to that." She continued, "There have been attempts to change our laws in 2005, 2012 and after an inquiry in 2017. Now is the time for change." Attorney-General David Parker was later quoted as saying that the government will ban semi-automatic guns, but subsequently backtracked on this statement, saying that the government had not yet committed to anything and that regulations around semi-automatic weapons was "one of the issues" the government would consider. Ardern, at a press conference on 18 March, indicated that details of the proposed reforms will be given by 25 March.

The day after ther attack many gun store owners reported an increase in gun sales, particularly semi automatic weapons, in response the prospect of stricter laws. In contrast, some New Zealand gun owners have responded by voluntarily handing in their weapons to the police.

See also

• Crime in New Zealand
• List of Islamophobic incidents
• List of terrorist incidents in March 2019
• Islam in New Zealand
• Quebec City mosque shooting
• Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
• 2011 Norway attacks

External links

• Quotations related to Christchurch mosque shootings at Wikiquote
• Media related to Christchurch mosque shootings at Wikimedia Commons