|
|
|
Christchurch
gun shop
sold
rifles
online
to
accused
shooter
By
JULIET
WILLIAMS,
STEPHEN
WRIGHT
and
KRISTEN
GELINEAU
CHRISTCHURCH,
New
Zealand
- A
Christchurch
gun shop
on
Monday
acknowledged
selling
guns
online
to the
28-year-old
white
supremacist
accused
of
killing
50
people
in
mosque
shootings
that
have
upturned
New
Zealand’s
reputation
as among
the
world’s
most
tolerant
and safe
nations.
At a
news
conference,
Gun City
owner
David
Tipple
said the
store
sold
four
guns and
ammunition
to
Brenton
Harrison
Tarrant
through
a
“police-verified
online
mail
order
process.”
The
store
“detected
nothing
extraordinary,”
about
the
buyer,
he said.
Separately,
New
Zealand’s
prime
minister
Jacinda
Ardern
said gun
law
reforms
would be
announced
within
10 days
and an
inquiry
conducted
into
intelligence
and
security
services
who
failed
to
detect
the risk
from the
attacker
or his
plans.
There
have
been
concerns
intelligence
agencies
have
been
overly
focused
on the
Muslim
community
in
detecting
and
preventing
security
risks.
The
police
commissioner
Mike
Bush
said
police
are
certain
Tarrant
was the
only
gunman
but
aren’t
ruling
out that
he had
support.
“I
would
like to
state
that we
believe
absolutely
there
was only
one
attacker
responsible
for
this,”
he told
a news
conference.
“That
doesn’t
mean
there
weren’t
possibly
other
people
in
support
and that
continues
to form
a very,
very
important
part of
our
investigation.”
None
of the
guns
sold to
Tarrant
were
military-style,
semi-automatic
weapons,
according
to
Tipple.
It was
not
clear if
any of
the
firearms
Tarrant
purchased
from Gun
City
were
used in
Friday’s
shootings.
In
vowing
to
tighten
gun
laws,
Ardern
has said
the
attacker
used
five
guns,
two of
them
semi-automatic,
which
were
purchased
with an
ordinary
gun
license
and
modified.
Tipple
said he
felt no
responsibility
for the
tragedy
and
refused
to say
whether
he
believed
gun
ownership
laws
should
change
in New
Zealand,
insisting
a debate
over
guns
should
be held
at
another
time.
“This
man
wrote in
his
manifesto
that the
purpose
of using
a
firearm
was to
divide
us,”
Tipple
said.
“If we
allow
him to
make
changes
in our
ideology,
in our
behavior,
he’s
won.”
His
store
has been
criticized
for
leaving
out a
roadside
advertising
billboard
that
shows a
parent
helping
children
with
rifle
target
practice
in the
wake of
the
shootings.
Three
days
after
the
attack,
New
Zealand’s
deadliest
shooting
in
modern
history,
relatives
were
anxiously
waiting
for word
on when
they can
bury
their
loved
ones.
Islamic
tradition
calls
for
bodies
to be
cleansed
and
buried
as soon
as
possible
after
death,
usually
within
24
hours.
Aya
Al-Umari,
whose
older
brother
Hussien
Al-Umari
died at
the Al
Noor
mosque,
wept as
she
talked
about a
kind
man, a
quintessential
big
brother
who
delighted
in
teasing
his
little
sister.
On
Monday,
the
family
was
still
waiting
for the
release
of
Hussein’s
body.
They
have
tried to
be
patient,
and
understand
that
police
have a
job to
do, but
they are
growing
weary of
the lack
of
information.
“It’s
very
unsettling
not
knowing
what’s
going
on, if
you just
let me
know —
is he
still in
the
mosque?
Is he in
a
fridge?
Where is
he?” Aya
said. “I
understand
the
police
need to
do their
job
because
it’s a
crime
scene,
but you
need to
communicate
with the
families.”
Members
of the
Muslim
community
and
police
were at
a
cemetery
which
has been
fenced
off and
obscured
with
white
netting.
Backhoes
had
stopped
digging
and
police
officers
said
they
were
setting
up a
media
area
inside
the
cemetery.
Kawthar
Abulaban,
54, who
survived
the
shooting
at the
Al Noor
Mosque,
came to
the
burial
site to
see the
preparations.
She did
not mind
the row
of
photographers
and
reporters
lined up
outside
the
cemetery.
“It’s
good for
the
world to
see
what’s
happened
because
people
around
the
world,
they
thought
we were
terrorists
because
some
stupid
people,
they
said
they are
Muslims,
they go
and kill
innocent
people,
they
thought
we are
terrorists,”
said
Abulaban
who
emigrated
to New
Zealand
from
Jordan
17 years
ago.
“I
will not
change
my
opinion
about
New
Zealand.
It’s my
country,”
she
said.
“You
know I
have
lots of
support,
lots of
love,
lots of
kindness
from all
of the
New
Zealand
people.”
Ardern
has said
authorities
hoped to
release
all the
bodies
by
Wednesday
and
police
said
authorities
were
working
with
pathologists
and
coroners
to
complete
the task
as soon
as they
could.
Tarrant,
an
Australian
citizen
who
lived in
New
Zealand,
appeared
in court
on
Saturday
where
the
judge
read one
murder
charge
and said
more
charges
would
likely
follow.
The New
Zealand
Herald
reported
Monday
that he
had
dismissed
his
appointed
lawyer
and
plans to
defend
himself.
Tarrant
had
posted a
muddled,
74-page
anti-immigrant
manifesto
online
before
the
attacks
and
apparently
used a
helmet-mounted
camera
to
broadcast
live
video of
the
slaughter.
Facebook
said it
removed
1.5
million
videos
of the
shootings
during
the
first 24
hours
after
the
massacre.
The
revelation
in a
tweet
provided
a
chilling
snapshot
of how
quickly
provocative
and
often
disturbing
images
circulate
on the
internet.
Thousands
of
people
struggling
to make
sense of
the
tragedy
have
paid
tribute
to the
victims
at
makeshift
memorials
in
Christchurch,
a leafy
city of
400,000
people
known
for its
English
heritage
and the
river
that
meanders
through
it.
Hundreds
of
flowers
were
piled up
amid
candles,
balloons
and
notes of
grief
and love
outside
the Al
Noor
mosque
and the
city’s
botanic
gardens.
Some
people
sang
tributes
and
others
prayed
as
camera
crews
from
around
the
world
filmed
the
moving
scenes.
“We
are a
nation
who will
never
accept
acts
like
this!!!,”
said a
poster-sized
message
decorated
with
hearts
attached
to the
iron
fence of
the
botanic
gardens.
“We
stand
with the
Muslim
community.
We will
always
fight
for the
safety
of our
community.
We will
always
stand as
one.”
___
|
|
|
|
|
|