Christchurch mosque shooting: Heroes of massacre revealed
A hero dad who had been shot multiple times climbed over the top of his toddler son to save him from becoming another victim of the New Zealand mosque attacks.
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A hero dad was riddled with bullets when he shielded his two-year-old son as a gunman opened fire on innocent worshippers in the horrific New Zealand mosque attacks.
Zulfirman Syah was shot several times after throwing himself in front of his toddler son Averroes — with both now expected to survive, reports The Sun.
Mr Syah’s wife Alta Marie revealed how her husband had bravely shielded their son as bullets rained down on innocent worshippers at the Linwood mosque.
Writing on Facebook, she said: “My husband shielded our son during the attack at Linwood Islamic Centre, which caused him to receive most of the bullets and much more complex injuries than our son.
“He is in stable condition following the extensive exploratory and reconstructive surgery he had earlier today.
“While he is still in the intensive care unit at this stage, he will be moved to the general ward whenever it is deemed appropriate — likely in the next day or so.
“While the road to recovery will be long, his condition has only improved since he arrived at the hospital yesterday.”
And in a heart-wrenching video, panicked Averroes can be seen clambering over his injured father in the wake of the attack.
Alta said she searched for their son for hours — thankfully finding him injured but alive.
Young Averroes suffered more minor injuries, including a gunshot wound to the leg and backside, and underwent surgery to remove shrapnel.
Alta Marie said: “He had surgery this morning to extract some shrapnel while checking for internal injuries.
“He is recovering nicely and has been cheerful while keeping the staff on the children’s ward entertained with his talkative and energetic nature.”
HERO USED EFTPOS MACHINE
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.
Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, 28, 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.
MORE LIVES SAVED
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 and stopped the prayer he was leading and peeked out the window.
He saw a guy 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 it was for real.
“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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
HERO DAD DIED AFTER WRESTLING GUN
A hero father died after trying to wrestle the gun from the New Zealand maniac’s hand in a bid to stop the massacre which left 50 worshippers dead.
Pakistan-born Naeem Rashid, who moved to New Zealand to work as a teacher, was gunned down by Tarrant after bravely trying to stop the carnage at one of the mosques, The Sun reported.
He was fatally wounded after launching himself in front of the twisted killer in a bid to protect other worshippers, it has been reported.
His brother Dr Khursheed Alam told ARY News that Naeem and his son Talha, 21, were both murdered in the mass shooting.
Naeem, worked in private bank in Abbottabad, Pakistan, before becoming a teacher, died of
his wounds in hospital.
BYSTANDER TELLS OF HORRIFIC SCENE
A heroic bystander who rushed to the aid of victims caught up in the Christchurch terror attack has told of the chaos in the aftermath of the massacre.
Jacob Murray, 25, says he is haunted by the image of a child lying limp in a man’s arms.
The former social worker was driving down Deans Avenue when he heard “popping” noises, The New Zealand Herald reports.
“I looked at the car and realised that out of the car something was shooting, and people on the side of the road were falling down,” he said.
“It was all in slow motion to me. I didn’t register what was going on.”
Mr Murray ran to the aid of a woman lying covered in blood on the footpath.
He then helped a man who had been shot get to an ambulance.
“I put my arm around this man and when I pulled it away it was covered in blood. I lifted up his shirt and he had about three or four bullet wounds in his back. He was just soaked (with blood) and in shock.
“I’m screaming down the street for these ambulances to come down but they’re behind these police barricades.”
Mr Murray told how he saw a man carrying a horrifically injured child in his arms.
“The image that’s stuck in my mind … is this mid-50-year-old man holding this four-year-old child, and the child is just limp in his arms.
“And he’s standing beside an ambulance now, and there’s no-one helping him and this baby’s chest was just covered in blood.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.
Originally published as Christchurch mosque shooting: Heroes of massacre revealed
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