Man who scared away gunman at Christchurch mosque hailed a hero

Sunday, 17 March 2019

When the gunman advanced toward the mosque, killing those in his path, Abdul Aziz didn't hide. Instead, he picked up the first thing he could find - a credit card machine - and ran outside screaming 'Come here!'

Aziz, 48, is being hailed as a hero for preventing more deaths during Friday prayers at the Linwood mosque in Christchurch after leading the gunman in a cat-and-mouse chase before scaring him into speeding away in his car.

But Aziz, whose four sons and dozens of others remained in the mosque while he faced off with the gunman, said he thinks it's what anyone would have done.

The gunman killed 50 people after attacking two mosques in the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand's modern history.

**READ MORE:

* The end of New Zealand's innocence

* Christchurch shootings: Live updates

* Christchurch shootings: New Zealand's worst nightmare evolves

* One shooter behind both Christchurch mosque shootings

* Christchurch mosque terrorist shootings: What you need to know**

He is believed to have killed 41 people at the Al Noor mosque before driving about 5 kilometres across town and attacking the Linwood mosque, where he killed seven more people. One person died later in hospital.

A 28-year-old white supremacist has been charged with one count of murder in the slayings and a judge said on Saturday that it was reasonable to assume more charges would follow.

​Latef Alabi, the Linwood mosque's acting imam, said the death toll would have been far higher at the Linwood mosque if it wasn't for Aziz.

Alabi said he heard a voice outside the mosque at about 1.55pm, stopped the prayer he was leading and peeked out 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. Then he saw two bodies and heard the gunman yelling obscenities.

'I realised this is something else. This is a killer,' he said.

He yelled 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 what was happening. 

'Then this brother came over. He went after him, and he managed to overpower him, and that's how we were saved,' Alabi said, referring to Aziz. 'Otherwise, if he managed to come into the mosque, then we would all probably be gone.'

Aziz said as he ran outside screaming, he was 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. But the gunman ducked under the hurled machine.

He said he could hear his two youngest sons, aged 11 and 5, urging him to come back inside.

The gunman returned, firing. Aziz said he ran, weaving through cars parked in the driveway, which prevented the gunman from getting a clean shot.

'He probably did around four or five shots at me and I was ducking between the cars,' Aziz told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'I wanted him to be away from the mosque, so I called to him.'

Then Aziz spotted a gun the shooter had abandoned, picked it up, pointed it and squeezed the trigger. It was empty.

The gunman did not see him. He was returning to the mosque, still shooting. Aziz chased him in.

For the first time, the gunman saw Aziz carrying a weapon.

He said the gunman ran back to the car for a second time, likely to grab 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 was cursing at him, yelling that he was going to kill them all. But he drove away and Aziz said he chased the car down the street to a red light, before it made a U-turn and sped away. Online videos indicate police officers managed to force the car from the road and drag out the suspect soon after.

Aziz ran back into the mosque where his sons were sheltering. Seven others lay dead.

'I saw a lot of injuries and deaths and I didn't know if all my sons were alright,' Aziz told the Sydney Morning Herald.  

'I went but I couldn't see my boys because everyone had dived. My five-year-old was lying down and my 25-year-old was lying on top of him trying to cover him up. I didn't know if they were OK.

'It was very hard. Very, very hard.'

Aziz heard shouting outside and, fearing the gunman had returned, he ran back outside to confront him again. This time he found police who prevented him from re-entering the mosque. It was another hour before he learned that all his boys were alive.

It is impossible to know how many lives Aziz saved. 

Originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, Aziz said he left as a refugee when he was a boy and lived for more than 25 years in Australia, working as a builder, 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.

Aziz said he didn't feel fear or much of anything when facing the gunman. It was like he was on autopilot. And he believes that God, that Allah, didn't think it was his time to die.

Asked by the Sydney Morning Herald if he had a message for those who hated Muslims, he said: 'The message is, we love them. They should not be afraid of us. We are all one family … We have the same coloured blood.'

- With SMH