The examination of New Zealand’s darkest day

Saturday, 16 December 2023

On Friday, March 15, 2019, New Zealand experienced one of its darkest days. A gunman opened fire in two Christchurch mosques, killing 51 people. For the past seven weeks an inquiry has considered whether the terrorist could have been stopped sooner, and if any of those lives could have been saved. JAKE KENNY reports.

Police dispatcher Dara Taylor returned from lunch and sat down at her desk. It was quiet. Most of the stations around her at the Christchurch emergency communications centre were empty.

At 1.41pm, a priority one job flashed on her screen. The highest alert. Possible machine gun fire on Deans Ave. By the time she’d relayed the details over the radio, her screen had lit up. A person is shooting a gun…someone says it could be a machine gun…someone has been shot… there is blood and it’s all coming from the mosque on Deans Ave.

The room around Taylor changed. Suddenly, every desk was manned. People paced back and forth, running information between stations. Chaos.

By 1.46pm, two police officers were at the corner of Deans Ave and Riccarton Rd, just west of the city centre. They were roughly half a kilometre from the Al Noor mosque - the heart of Christchurch’s Muslim community.

As they got out of their patrol car, a city bus rolled past. Had it not been there they would have seen a gold Subaru Legacy behind it, racing past, driven by a man wearing dark camouflage and a ballistic vest, and with bullet holes in its windscreen.

The officers moved towards the mosque. People were running in the opposite direction, screaming. At the Argyle on the Park motel, they saw a man lying in the car park, covered in blood. One of them radioed Taylor. Urgent medical assistance needed for a critically injured patient.

Taylor sent an alert to St John. She didn’t know it, but she had just had a near miss with the driver of the gold Subaru herself. One that could have given police early notice of the terrorist’s next target.

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Four years later, sitting in a courtroom, Dara Taylor explained how she didn’t know about this near miss for a week. About the same time the officer was radioing her from the scene, a parliamentary staffer had called 111 to report a disturbing email sent to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office by a person named Brenton Tarrant. It appeared to be a white supremacist manifesto, claiming responsibility for attacks on not just the Al Noor mosque but two others as well.

The call was flagged as priority two, so was lost under all the priority ones flooding in from Al Noor. Had Taylor seen it, she would have rushed units to the Linwood Islamic Centre - the next closest mosque the terrorist identified in his manifesto, and where he raced from Al Noor and killed seven more people.

It was a devastating miscommunication, but probably not the worst thing to emerge during coroner Brigitte Windley’s first phase inquest into the Christchurch terror attacks. Before Taylor, one of the first witnesses to give evidence, a video tribute to the 51 victims was played to the court.

There was barely a dry eye in the room. Family members wearing T-shirts with their loved ones' faces sobbed loudly from the gallery. Others walked out to gather themselves. Tissue boxes circulated as lawyers, court staff and media representatives joined in wiping away tears.

Al Noor mosque

Approximately 190 worshippers were inside the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers at 1.40pm when the terrorist walked in and opened fire. In five minutes, he fired hundreds of rounds at people young and old, male and female, before leaving for his next target.

At 1.53pm, four armed offenders squad (AOS) members pulled up outside the mosque. The officer who’d walked from Argyle on the Park joined them. Sitting in the same seat as Taylor two days later, the ranking AOS officer recounted how he believed a shooter was still inside.

His team cleared the building and entered the main prayer room.

“There were multiple bodies piled up on the left and right-hand sides,” the officer said. “Some were deceased…when you looked into the corners they were piled up where they were trying to escape…I estimated 40 to 50 bodies.”

The commander did a visual clearance then told his team to start administering first aid. He quickly realised they didn’t have nearly enough medical equipment.

He radioed his boss - codenamed Zero Alpha - on the AOS tactical channel and advised the mosque was clear. Ambulances could come forward.

By 2.05pm he’d made three more calls. No ambulances. He even walked outside to see where they were. More police had arrived but no paramedics. He was frustrated and overwhelmed with patients. Then he heard over the radio that shots had been fired in the suburb of Linwood.

“We didn’t know what other teams in the city were doing. I called Zero Alpha and told him we’re going there. He said, ‘Yep’.” As they left, the officer assumed other police would quickly help the Al Noor victims.

They didn’t. The severely injured and dying victims were alone inside for ten minutes until paramedics, escorted by an armed police guard, entered at 2.15pm. The AOS officer didn’t know about this delay for four years, when he was told in court.

At the inquiry, counsel assisting the coroner David Boldt described it as the biggest mistake in the response. It was compounded by an erroneous broadcast over the police radio by Detective Inspector Darryl Sweeney that the offender was returning to the mosque. He had been watching the terrorist’s own footage of the attack believing it was live, when it was delayed.

Among those left dying inside was Zekeriya Tuyan - who spent 30 minutes on the phone to St John as he lay, critically injured, amongst bodies. He later succumbed to the injuries - the 51st and final victim of the attacks. The first patients were not taken out of the mosque until 2.21pm - more than 20 minutes after it had been cleared by police.

The communication difficulties, between police teams and with St John, arose almost every day of the seven-week inquest. It emerged that police and St John staff inside their neighbouring communication centres were relying on runners going back and forth to relay information. It was unclear if messages from police to St John requesting ambulances ever made it to their intended destination.

This may have also contributed to an erroneous report of shots being fired at Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department at 1.56pm. This diverted a number of armed police until it was confirmed to be a false alarm about ten minutes later.

‘He looked me in the eyes and then started to shoot me’

Ahmad Alayedy was at Al Noor for Friday prayers.

“I saw bullets, and people being hit by the bullets,” he told the inquest. “That is when I realised it was the sound of bullets, [they were] coming close to me, past me, about five metres away from me.”

Alayedy calmly told the inquest how the shots flew past him as he ducked for cover. He estimated the bullets were two to three centimetres away.

“I know the gunman was trying to shoot me. He looked me in the eyes and then started to shoot me.”

Mohammad Siddiqui described how he’d begun his prayers when he first heard shots.

He was one of many who helped Alayedy break through an emergency door that wouldn’t open, crawling out the bottom of it before hiding behind a car outside.

“Then everything went silent, I thought he [the shooter] must've gone, then a minute later I heard the shooting again … I felt a strong blast on my left arm.

“I dropped my phone and fell to the ground, and put my phone on speaker and heard my wife asking me if I was OK. I was screaming in pain and could feel warm blood spilling out of my jacket.”

Linwood Islamic Centre

The terrorist arrived at the Linwood Islamic Centre at 1.52pm. He stayed for roughly three minutes. At 1.57pm, he was located on Brougham St, in the south of the city, on the way to his third target and arrested by two officers who rammed his Subaru with their car to disable it.

He told them that he was one of ten shooters across the city - a lie that caused extra caution, confusion and delays for police and ambulance at both scenes.

The first reports of shots being fired by a man out of his car on Linwood Ave was broadcast over the police radio at 1.56pm. Constable Coral-Ann Bowler was in the area already and arrived at the Linwood mosque three minutes later. At the inquest, she fought back tears as she described how she believed someone was still inside killing people.

“As I approached the driveway I felt sick, I felt there was a good chance I was going to be shot and killed.”

Armed police descended on the mosque within minutes, including a van full of international tactical operators who’d been in the city for a sniper course.

At 2.06pm, it was confirmed there was no active shooter inside the Linwood mosque. Tactical police were administering first aid while they waited for paramedics to arrive. A child who was shot was taken to hospital by police at 2.21pm, just as the first two specialist paramedics arrived.

On the way to the mosque, those paramedics, Karen Jackson and Dale Muller, pulled over for six minutes at the intersection of Fitzgerald Ave and Gloucester St to “orient themselves”.

They had two of the tactical operators with them, one of whom said they had to be convinced to proceed to the scene as they were unsure if it was safe.

After arriving and finding a number of critical patients, Muller called for ambulances to Linwood at 2.26pm. The first patient was taken by ambulance at 2.44pm. The inquest heard that the police’s call for ambulances to the scene were not responded to.

Police had declared the scene safe but hadn’t specified this when calling the ambulances forward, and St John had not relayed back their concerns about safety.

Saira Patel was inside the Linwood mosque when the shooting began. Her husband Musa was shot as he ran to her. She was removed from the scene by police, and did not find out her husband had died until she asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a press conference the next day.

Experts and survivability

International counter-terrorism experts Scott Wilson and Frank Straub prepared a detailed report of the emergency response, commissioned by lawyers for the families.

They weren’t critical of frontline responders, but rather New Zealand’s processes for dealing with an emergency like a mass shooting.

Improved cooperation between agencies - including better communication lines and common language around scene safety - was a must.

A new public safety network radio channel that would be shared between police and St John encouraged both experts. It will hopefully be rolled out next year.

However, they concurred that it was “unacceptable” victims were left alone in Al Noor for ten minutes.

The delay was never discussed during police debriefs, and St John and police had not debriefed the events together at all - a point that concerned both experts.

The deaths of five victims - Ramiz Vora, Farhaj Ashan, Tariq Omar, Zekeriya Tuyan and Musavali Patel - were examined closely by the coroner. They were considered a cohort who might have survived if treated earlier.

One by one, their families heard from a panel of medical experts that survival for any of them was unlikely.

Looking forward

Tariq’s mother, Rosemary Omar, hoped lessons could be learned from her son’s death.

She feared that if a similar attack happened now, the response would be the same.

“It’s been pretty hard. I would love to say it’s given me closure but it hasn’t. I just feel exhausted and I know regardless, I can’t change what happened.”

Because of the ambiguity around Tariq’s death, she felt she may never find out exactly how he died.

The inquest had helped her understand the truth of what happened on the day, she said, and refute any conspiracy theories.

“I have a lot of faith and respect for this coroner…I really hope everyone can learn from this.”

Omar said she felt hopeful for the recommendations, but also worried that some organisations may not take them on board. The court had tried its best to figure out what happened.

“I’m just hoping we can celebrate how Tariq lived, rather than think about how he died.

“To recognise the beauty of each day, even though there is still pain inside.

“I have three other children who were all really close to Tariq…he was a really good brother and a role model.”

The coroner’s findings and recommendations are not binding and are expected to be made sometime in 2024. Two more issues - around the country’s firearms register and wider issues around radicalisation - may be examined as part of a second phase inquest.

‘It was hard…now I’m relieved’

For four years, Aya Al-Umari has fought for her brother. Hussein Al-Umari was in the Al Noor mosque when the shooter opened fire. When he confronted the man, he was shot.

Just before the end of the inquest, police confirmed they would nominate Hussein Al-Umari for a posthumous bravery award.

“It felt like I was carrying a burden,” Aya Al-Umari said. “It was hard…but I felt like I was in a position of influence while pursuing the truth for Hussein…now I’m relieved.”

Al-Umari felt optimistic about the future and the inquest findings.

“It is not a criticism of first responders…I had about 80 questions before all this I wanted to answer and ticked 99% of them off. I’m relieved.”

Survivability expert John Hick concluded Hussein Al-Umari was likely alive for about 20 minutes after being shot, before succumbing to his injuries.

“The two core motivations for me were Hussein, and how do we stop it happening again.

“It almost restarted the grieving process…but knowing his inner strength really helped.”