When gunman advanced on New Zealand mosque, this man ran at him

Authored by cbc.ca and submitted by EnoughPM2020
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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 49 people after attacking two mosques in the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand's modern history.

Death toll would have been higher, imam says

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

White supremacist Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged with one count of murder in the slayings and a judge said 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 1:55 p.m. and 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 realized 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 realize it was for real.

A police officer stands by a collection of flowers near the Linwood Mosque in Christchurch. (Mark Baker/Associated Press)

"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.

'I just got the gun and threw it'

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 Allah didn't think it was his time to die.

jordangoretro on March 16th, 2019 at 14:59 UTC »

Terrifying for his sons to see him do that. But now he’s survived, that’s the kind of admiration that will raise those two boys into fine men. Guys like this give all of us hope.

gopster on March 16th, 2019 at 14:25 UTC »

So basically this badass single handedly saved the lives of most of the people and prevented a total massacre. I hope he gets more coverage on the news.

EnoughPM2020 on March 16th, 2019 at 13:09 UTC »

OKAY. Some explanation needed. Some people are using the live stream to prove that Aziz’s story may be false. While I personally haven’t seen it, some people at the thread said that there’s a good possibility that the livestream video mainly focused on the 1st shooting at the Al Noor Mosque. Aziz’s story occurred while he was praying at Lynwood Mosque - the 2nd Mosque that got hit by the terrorist shooting, right after what happened in Al Noor Mosque, in which 41 people died. 7-8 people died from the shooting in Lynwood. It is unclear to me that whether or not the main perpetrator hit up the 2nd Mosque and featured it in his livestream. TWO MOSQUES GOT HIT DURING THE SHOOTING.

Another Thing: Many people also brought up the case in which a person inside the Al noor Mosque tried to stop the shooter but died in the process. This person’s name is Naeem Rashid, who also lost his son at the AL NOOR Mosque shooting. His news is now featured in r/worldnews for a while. Here is a link to the thread and a link to the original article. May Rashid Rest In Peace.

What happened (Spoiler Alert, This guy Lived to tell the tale):

So 48 years old Abdul Azizwas doing a Friday Prayer at the Lynwood Mosque (The 2nd Mosque) with his 4 sons and many other people. The shooter, who killed 41 people at the Al Noor mosque (The 1st Mosque - the livestream video mostly focused on shooting at this one), drove to the Lynwood mosque and started killing 7+1 (who later died in the hospital) more people.

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 1:55 p.m. 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.

The Imam realized that this person is up to no good, so he told those in the congregation, 80 of them, to get down. Although they were initially hesitated, the shattered window and the fallen body proved that it was no joke.

"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 "Come here!"(CBC)/“Come I’m here!”(Sky News), 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, so what Aziz did was to threw the emptied gun on his window like an arrow and blasted it. 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 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 said he thinks it's what anyone would have done.

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 Allah didn't think it was his time to die.

Not All heroes Wear Capes.

PS: Here is Aziz’s interview with Sky News regarding what went down that day. I got the link from this command chain and I thank the user who provided it.