Christchurch mosque shooting: The victims and the missing from the mosque massacre
He spent just three years on this earth before being killed in an attack on a Christchurch mosque, but Mucad Ibrahim seemed like an old soul.
Crime in Focus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Crime in Focus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
He spent just three years on this earth, but in some ways, a friend said, he seemed like an old soul.
Before he became the youngest known victim of Christchurch’s mass shooting, 3-year-old Mucad Ibrahim had possessed intelligence beyond his years, and an affinity for his elders.
But on Friday, when a gunman stormed into the mosque where Mucad was sitting with his big brother and father, it was Mucad’s youth that left him so vulnerable.
In the chaos that ensued as people fled from the bullets, the tiny boy became separated from his family. On Sunday, his brother Abdi Ibrahim said that police had confirmed the worst: Their beloved little boy was dead.
Each of the 50 lives lost in Friday’s senseless barrage of violence at the hands of a white supremacist has left an aching wound across this close-knit city. But the death of Mucad, with his big brown eyes and sweet smile, has pierced with particular ferocity.
“He’s been loved by the community here,” said Ahmed Osman, a close family friend. “It’s been tough days. It’s been really tough days.”
Tarrant’s family called police as horror unfolded
Delusions of NZ’s white supremacist gunman
Mucad was a joyful, energetic child who always seemed to be laughing, Abdi said. And he was bright, with anaffinity for technology. His toy of choice was an iPad.
The toddler impressed Osman with his intelligence. Mucad seemed to particularly enjoy talking to older people, he said.
“He was very approachable,” Osman said. “He is easygoing to talk to.”
Nearly every Friday at 6pm, Mucaad would go to the park not far from the mosque where his life would ultimately end. There, he would watch Abdi play soccer with Osman and their friends. The toddler would stand on the sidelines cheering them, and kicking a ball of his own along the grass, Osman recalled with a smile.
Mucad had planned to go to the park, as usual, on Friday evening. He would never get the chance.
That afternoon, he joined Abdi and their father at the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers. Mucad was sitting just in front of Abdi, listening to the imam, when a thunder of bullets shattered the peace.
Everyone began to run. Abdi thought his father had Mucad. In the rush and the crush of people, the trio became separated.
That was the last time Abdi saw his baby brother.
After an agonising search by the family, police confirmed that Mucad was dead, Abdi said. On Sunday, Abdi waited at Christchurch’s airport for the arrival of another one of his brothers, Abdifatah Ibrahim, who had been overseas when the massacre occurred. The shooting, Abdi said, still felt like a terrible dream.
“My mum, she’s been struggling,” Abdi said. “Every time she sees other people crying, emotional, she just collapses.”
A few minutes later, Abdifatah emerged through the arrivals gate. He and Abdi wrapped their arms around each other in a tight embrace. And then they went to wait for the release of their little brother’s body so they could lay him to rest, a life ended before it had barely begun.
TEEN DIES ON PHONE TO MUM
The mother of a teenage boy killed in the New Zealand mosque massacre was on the phone with him when he was shot dead, she said.
Hamza Mustafa, 16, had been praying at the Masjid Al Noor mosque on Friday with his father and younger brother, and called his mother moments after the gunman opened fire, reports the New York Post.
“He said: ‘Mum, there’s someone come into the mosque and he’s shooting us’ and he was running with his brother who had been shot in the leg,” the grief-stricken mother, Salwa Mustafa, recalled to Stuff. NZ.
“After that, I heard shooting and he screamed and after that I didn’t hear him,” she continued. “I called, ‘Hamza, Hamza,’ and I can hear his little voice and after that it was quiet.”
She kept trying to reach her son for the next 22 minutes.
“His phone was on, but I couldn’t talk to him, after that someone picked up the phone and told me your son can’t breathe, I think he’s dead.”
Mustafa’s other son, 13-year-old Zaid managed to flee the carnage, but her husband, Khaled, 44, was one of the 50 people killed.
“Our lives have completely changed,” Mustafa said from Christchurch Hospital where Zaid is recovering from two gunshot wounds.
She described Hamza, her late son, who attended Cashmere High School, as “the most wonderful boy” who was “very caring and polite.”
When asked about white supremacist gunman Brenton Tarrant, she said: “God will punish him.”
“My son and my husband are in heaven now and we’re going after them, we’re going to follow them to the heavens.”
SPORTS STAR CONFIRMED AMONG THE DEAD
Atta Elayyan, 33, was the goalkeeper for the national and Canterbury men’s futsal teams, has been named one of the victims of the massacre.
The Palestinian was born in Kuwait and was well known in the tech industry, working as a director and shareholder of a company called LWA solutions.
He had also recently become a father.
FOUR-YEAR-OLD FIGHTING FOR HER LIFE
A Jordanian man has said his four-year-old niece is fighting for her life after being wounded in the New Zealand mosque shootings.
Sabri Daraghmeh said by phone from Jordan on Saturday that the girl, Elin, remains “in the danger phase” and that her father, Waseem — Sabri’s brother — is in stable condition.
Daraghmeh says the 33-year-old Waseem moved to New Zealand five years ago and that he described it as the “safest place one could ever live in.”
The Daraghmehs are of Palestinian origin, but have Jordanian citizenship, like several others listed as Jordanian nationals among those killed and wounded in the mosque attacks.
GRIEVING FATHER SPEAKS THROUGH TEARS
A grieving father has spoken through tears of his “brave little boy,” a 14-year-old who died at the Al Noor Mosque.
Sayyad Milne, a Year 10 student at Cashmere High School, was at the mosque he attended with his mother and friends every Friday.
His father John Milne said through tears: “I’ve lost my little boy, he’s just turned 14”.
“I haven’t heard officially yet that he’s actually passed but I know he has because he was seen. [I’m] keeping it together and tears are helping. people are helping. Just by being here, it is helping.”
He said Sayyad was a keen football player.
“I remember him as my baby who I nearly lost when he was born. Such a struggle he’s had throughout all his life. He’s been unfairly treated but he’s risen above that and he’s very brave. It’s so hard … to see him just gunned down by someone who didn’t care about anyone or anything. I know where he is. I know he’s at peace.”
As terrible as it is for the family, it could have been even worse. Sayyad’s brother was on an excursion while his twin sister was at school.
Another father has posted a heartfelt video from his hospital bed, urging friends to pray for his daughter.
Brenton Tarrant’s secret travels changed him forever
Christchurch victim’s heartfelt hospital message
Deranged alleged Australian terrorist’s roots
A FRIDAY LIKE ANY OTHER...
Khaja Mohiuddin went to the Linwood Avenue mosque last Friday, much the same way he had done every week for 10 years since he moved to Christchurch from his native home in Hyderabad in India.
“I just went there to pray like I have always done,” he told News Corp.
“We were in there and praying then we heard this sound like someone was banging the cars, some usual vandal thing, like breaking car windows or something, and we thought ‘OK that’s easy we just get the car windows fixed’. That is what we all thought then one of our group went to see … we never believed it could be gun shots but then … we saw. My friend who I always go with, we got separated. I hid. He is dead. We were always together before, every day and now we are not. We prayed together now we can’t.”
The 30-year-old, who declined to reveal his friend’s name out of respect for his family, spent much of Saturday at the hospital looking for other friends. He found one who remained in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his collarbone and the other just shot in the side and in satisfactory condition.
“We all talk about this thing, none of us can believe it could happen … I escaped with nothing, not injured my friends are dead and injured. I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Hundreds of locals went looking for loved ones on lists at Christchurch’s central hospital or standing vigil outside the mosques, sealed by police tape several hundreds metres back.
Police were only removing the bodies from the mosques for formal identification late Saturday.
‘PRAY FOR ME AND MY DAUGHTER’
Wasseim Alsati, originally from Jordan, posted a video from his hospital bed.
The barber was hit four times during the shooting, and his five-year-old daughter was hit three times. She is reportedly in a stable condition.
Mr Alsati thanked his friends and family for their support and apologises for being unable to respond to the calls and text messages he has received since the attack.
“Please pray for me and for my daughter, hopefully she will be so much better,” he said.
‘SAFE WITH GOD’
The family of Hussain Al-Umari, 35, are also still waiting for word.
“We love you Hussain. If he dies it’s a holy Friday and he’ll be safe with God.”
Bangladesh’s honorary consul in Auckland, Shafiqur Rahman Bhuiyan, said three Bangladeshis were among those killed and four or five others were wounded, including two left in critical condition.
“One leg of an injured needed to be amputated while another suffered bullet injuries in his chest,” Rahman Bhuiyan said. He declined to identify the dead or wounded. One is believed to be Dr MD Abdus Samad, an agricultural economics professor who migrated to New Zealand a decade ago with his wife and two sons. His family was unhurt.
Bangladeshi woman Husna Ara was with her paraplegic husband at prayers and were segregated as is standard for the sexes in a mosque but she rushed out 15 minutes into the shooting to save her husband Farid. She was killed trying to reach him, other worshippers wheeled him to safety.
INTERNATIONAL TRAGEDY
Two Jordanians were among those killed, while eight others were wounded. Two Indonesians, a father and son, were also among those shot and wounded at Linwood. The unidentified man’s wife Alta Marie took to social media to allay fears from loved ones to announce they were alive but injured.
“My husband was shot in multiple places and has a drain in his lung,” she wrote on Facebook. She said she was with her son, who is “traumatised” after being shot in his back and leg.
Mohammed Elyan, a Jordanian in his 60s who co-founded a mosque after arriving in New Zealand in 1993, was among those wounded, as was his son, Atta, who is in his 30s.
Malaysian Rahimi Ahmad was at Friday prayers with his 11-year-old son when the shooting started.
His wife Norazila Wahid, 39, told the family that doctors had removed bullets from Rahimi’s abdomen and that he is in “critical condition,” the Malay Mail reports.
Afghan father of five and retired engineer Haji Daud Nabi, 71, has also been confirmed killed.
Pakistan government spokesman Mohammad Faisal on Sunday said Pakistani national Zeeshan Raza, his father Ghulam Hussain and mother Karam Bibi are now confirmed dead. Earlier, Pakistani losses were identified as Sohail Shahid, Syed Jahandad Ali, Syed Areeb Ahmed, Mahboob Haroon, Naeem Rashid and his son Talha Naeem. Rashid and Naeem gave their lives attempting to snatch the attacker’s gun.
Mr Nabi’s sons Omar and Yama shared photos of their father yesterday as a tribute as they stood outside court where the man who allegedly killed their father was appearing before a judge.
A Facebook appeal was issued for Lilik Abdul Hamid but it has since been confirmed he also died.
SELF-SACRIFICE
Teacher Mr Rashid was being hailed a hero after attempting to wrestle the gun to save a friend during the melee. His 21-year-old son Talha is also believed to have died.
Omar Nabi said his father died trying to save others.
“I think he ran into that firing in order to save somebody,” he said. “He would do things like this. Just helping people is his main thing. It makes me feel like he wanted other people to live.”
He said he could not believe something like this could happen in New Zealand.
Others still missing include Vora Ramiz, 28, Kamel Darwish and former Muslim Association of Canterbury secretary Abdelfattah Qasem.
See the full list of confirmed casualties on the NZ Red Cross website.
Christchurch victims (preliminary list)
Khaled Alhaj Mustafa, 45 – Syria
Hamza Mustafa, 16 - Syria
Haji-Daoud Nabi, 71 – Afghanistan
Ali Elmadani, 65 – UAE
Atta Elayyan, 33 – Kuwait
Husna Ahmed, 44 – Bangladesh
Junaid Ismail, 36 – (unknown)
Hussein Al-Umari, 35 – UAE
Mucad Ibrahim, 3 - Christchurch (Somalia family)
Lilik Abdul Hamid, 58 - Medan Indonesia
Mohammed Imran Khan, 47 – India
Linda Armstrong, 65 – New Zealand
Sayyad Milne, 14 – New Zealand
Ashraf, 61 – Fiji
Syed Jahandad Ali, 43 - Pakistan
Naeem Rashid, 40s - Pakistan
Tariq Omar, 24 – (unknown)
Mathullah Safi, 55 - Afghanistan
Farhaj Ahsan, 30 - India
Kamel Darwish, 38 - Jordan
Sohail Shahid Pakistan
Abdelfattah Qasem, 60 - Palestine
Musa Vali Suleman Patel, 60 - Fiji
Ramiz Arifbhai Vora, 28 - Gujarat, India
Arifbhai Mohamedali Vora, 58 - Gujarat India
Ansi Alibava, 25 - Kerala, India
Ozair Kadir, 24 - Hyderabad, India
Ashraf-Masri, Egypt
Talha Naeem, 21 - Pakistan
Haroon Mahmood, 40 - Pakistan
Syed Areeb Ahmed, 26 - Karachi, Pakistan
Maheboob Allarakha Khokhar, 65 - Ahmedabad, India
Abdullah Dirie, 4 - Somalia
Hussein Moustafa, 70 - Egypt
Amjad Hamid, 57 -
Mounir Soliman, 68 - Egypt
Zeehan Raza, 38 – Karachi, Pakistan
Ghulam Hussain, 60s – Karachi, Pakistan
Karam Bibi, 60s – Karachi, Pakistan
Abdukadir Elmi, 70 – Somalia
Mohsen Al Harbi, 63 – Saudi Arabia
Osama Adnan Abu Kwik, 37 – Palestine
Mojammel Hoq, 30 – Bangladesh
Mohammed Omar Faruk, 36 – Bangladesh
Muhammed Abdusi Samad, 66 – Bangladesh
Musa Nur Awale, 77 – Somalia
Ahmad Gamaluddin Abdel Ghani, 68 – Egypt
Ashraf al-Morsi – Egypt
* Name Suppressed by courts
Zakaria Bhuiyan – (declared missing) Bangladesh
Originally published as Christchurch mosque shooting: The victims and the missing from the mosque massacre
How Assange’s father is derailing his chance of a pardon
Australia spent significant political capital to get Julian Assange out of prison while the US attempted to extradite him on spying charges — but now his father has intervened.
‘Living nightmare’: Family pain of Aussies killed in the Philippines
The family of an Australian couple found dead in a hotel room broke down as they revealed the cruelty behind the senseless murder the Philippines.