Students were kept safe, but the incident brought to light issues with the school’s current safety protocols. School lockdown procedures will be reviewed urgently in New Zealand to improve communication. Some teachers were confronted by irate parents demanding their children be allowed to leave. Desperate parents were unable to reach their children following the attacks. Local schools were placed on lockdown when police ordered students to not leave their classrooms between 2:20 pm and 6 pm that day. Police urged Christchurch residents to stay indoors and monitor the police website and social media. Witnesses credit Aziz’s bravery for slowing down the shooter until officers could intervene.Īuthorities barricaded streets in an attempt to place the area on lockdown and search for the gunman. Officers arrived at the mosque soon afterward, he and other survivors said. Abdul Aziz, who had been praying with his four sons at the time, bravely flung a handheld credit card machine at the attacker. He saw the gunman and two bodies on the ground out the window, and warned the congregation of about 80 people to get down. Lateef Alabi, the imam leading prayers at Linwood, heard a voice outside at about 1:55 pm. “Calls coming in from one, and then calls saying a second mosque, and people saying, ‘What? Do you mean this mosque or that one?’” said Chris Cahill, a detective inspector who is president of a local labor union for police officers. The second mosque caused confusion for call centers. The gunman then attacked the Linwood Mosque, almost four miles east of Al Noor. The officers arrived to a horrific scene, with the dead and wounded outnumbering the city’s usual on-duty police force. The police said a special armed tactical unit arrived at Al Noor four minutes after the first officers, or ten minutes after the initial emergency call. The gunman was gone by the time police arrived. Three minutes later, a siren can be heard on the video footage as he is driving to the second mosque. At 1:48 p.m., the suspect gets back in his car and drives towards his second target. The police said they received the first call for help at 1:41 p.m., when mosques were packed for Friday prayer.įorty-two people were killed during the six minute attack at the Al Noor Mosque. Christchurch First RespondersĪccording to the New York Times, officers apprehended the suspect only 36 minutes after receiving the first emergency call. The losses have sparked conversations around the globe about law enforcement, safety technology and more. Reminders of loss are never far away from these families, whether it be an empty seat at the dinner table or Ramadan. The Australian gunman, a white supremacist, has been charged with 50 murders and 39 attempted murders. The first attack was live streamed on Facebook. The shootings were two consecutive terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday prayer. The Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15 shook New Zealand and prompted a powerful inquiry into the worst mass murder in the country’s history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |