What we know about the New Zealand shooting
50 people are dead after shootings at two mosques; 50 others were wounded in the attack Friday.
A suspected shooter, an Australian national, has been charged with murder and is in custody.
Two others, whose roles remain unclear, are in custody.
A man who claimed responsibility for the attack wrote a manifesto referencing “white genocide” driven by “mass immigration.”
The manifesto said guns were used to stoke the 2nd Amendment debate in the U.S., and called President Trump a “symbol of renewed white identity”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged the country’s gun laws will change.
A gun store owner in New Zealand said he sold four guns and ammunition to the suspect.
Follow latest updates below:
Christchurch gun store owner sold several weapons to suspect
The owner of the store “Gun City” in Christchurch said he sold four guns and ammunition to the suspected mosque shooter using a “police-verified online mail order process,” according to The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear if any of those weapons from Gun City were used in the terror attack Friday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said the attacker used five guns, two of which were semi-automatic and were purchased with an ordinary gun license and modified.
In a statement, David Tipple said he provided police with the purchase records and full details of the sales; military style semi-automatic weapons were not part of the records. He said he and his staff are “dismayed and disgusted” over Friday’s massacre.
“We detected nothing extraordinary about this (gun) license holder,” Tipple noted of the suspect, who’s in custody as of Sunday night.
The AP reports that the store has been criticized for leaving out a roadside advertising billboard showing a parent helping children with rifle target practice.
The news comes shortly after organizers of New Zealand’s largest gun show canceling an event out of respect for the mosque shooting victims. The Kumeu Militaria Show, near Auckland, has been held for about five years, AP notes.
Organizers of the March 23 event said the show aims to support service members and to promote interest in New Zealand’s military history. On the show’s Facebook page, commenters said they supported the decision.
PM: Cabinet to meet Monday to discuss changing gun laws
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Cabinet will meet Monday to discuss the policy details of how the gun laws will change.
Ardern said there will be a police presence at mosques.
Ardern also said she would be discussing “directly” with Facebook the way live-streaming was used by the suspect, according to Reuters.
“Certainly, I have had contact from Sheryl Sandberg. I haven’t spoken to her directly but she has reached out, an acknowledgment of what has occurred here in New Zealand,” Ardern said.
“The fact that someone has done this to our friends, our colleagues, our friends – this is just unbelievable,” says hospital chief of surgery
The chief of surgery at Christchurch Hospital said in a news conference that 34 remain at that hospital, and one more patient is in critical condition at a separate hospital. Only one patient has died at the hospital so far, said Greg Robertson, the chief of surgery at Christchurch Hospital.
There are 12 patients in the ICU in critical condition, and many patients have required multiple surgeries.
“Forty to 50 gunshot wounds in a day is more than anyone should see,” he said.
Robertson said there is “no doubt” the deadly 2011 earthquake had been some preparation for having a large number of patients at the same time. But he said “we don’t want to get better” at handling a mass casualty situation. He elaborated that the injuries were “quite different” between the earthquake and the mass shooting, and said this shooting had a psychological effect on the hospital staff as well.
“The fact that someone has done this to our people, our friends, our colleagues – this is just unbelievable,” Robertson said.
”You try and understand it but it’s so senseless”
Family members are struggling to make sense of their loss.
“We do know he was in there and is one of the fallen,” Javed Dadabhai told CBS News of his cousin, who died inside the Al Noor Mosque. “You try and understand it but it’s so senseless, it wasn’t an accident.”
Farid Ahmed made it out of the mosque alive, he said he saw piles of bodies, the dead and the wounded.
“It was terrible. So many people, you know. some of them were screaming,” Ahmed said.
— Ben Tracy
Death toll rises to 50
The death toll from the deadly shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, has risen to 50, authorities said Sunday local time. Thirty-six are being being treated at Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in a news conference.
One child is among those injured and two others remain in critical condition, Bush said.
Suspect Brenton Tarrant appears in court
Brenton Tarrant, the 28-year-old shooting suspect, appeared in court Saturday in Christchurch on a murder charge. He wore handcuffs and a white prison shirt and had no expression.
“There is one charge of murder brought at the moment, it is reasonable to assume that there will be others,” the judge said after Tarrant left.
He did not request bail. His next court appearance will be April 5.
36 people being treated at Christchurch hospital
There are currently 36 people being treated at Christchurch Hospital after some people with minor injuries having been released, the hospital’s chief executive said in a statement.
“We still love this country,” says iman of mosque that was attacked
The iman of a Christchurch mosque who was leading Friday prayers when the gunman opened fire said extremists would “never ever touch our confidence,” AFP reports.
“We still love this country,” said Ibrahim Abdul Halim, imam of Linwood Mosque.
Suspect planned to continue attack, prime minister says
Suspect Brenton Tarrant planned to continue his attack after the shootings at the two mosques, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a press conference.
“The offender was mobile, there were two other firearms in thev ehicle that the offender was in, and it absolutely was his intention to continue with his attack,” Ardern told reporters in Christchurch.
The guns he used appeared to have been modified, which Ardern said is an issue the government will take into account when modifying their laws.
Ardern said he was in custody within 36 minutes of receiving the first call.
Ardern said the suspect was an Australian who “sporadically” visited New Zealand. She said he had not come to the “awareness” of New Zealand agencies.
The police commissioner is expected to give an update Sunday about the other two people who were taken into custody.
Reddit bans forums sharing violent content
Reddit banned a subreddit on Friday that is associated with violence where people had shared live video of the shooting. R/watchpeopledie showed up with the message “banned from Reddit.”
In a statement to CNET, a Reddit spokesperson said “we are very clear in our site terms of service that posting content that incites or glorifies violence will get users and communities banned from Reddit. Subreddits that fail to adhere to those site-wide rules will be banned.”
Another subreddit, r/gore, was not showing up.
— Caroline Linton
New Zealand PM: “Our gun laws will change”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the alleged shooter had five guns: two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns. Ardern said the suspect legally obtained the weapons and acquired a gun license in November 2017.
“A lever-action firearm was also found. While work has been done as to the chain of events that led to both the holding of this gun license and the possession of these weapons, I can tell you one thing right now: Our gun laws will change,” Ardern said in a news conference Saturday morning local time.
Ardern added there were previous attempts to change the gun laws in 2005, 2012 and 2017. “Now is the time for change,” she said.
New Zealand prime minister speaks to reporters
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to reporters on Saturday morning New Zealand time from Wellington, New Zealand. Ardern confirmed the gunman had access to five separate weapons and had a license, but also told reporters he was not on any watchlist.
“They were not on any watchlist, either here or in Australia,” Ardern said on Saturday during a press conference.
“Today as the country grieves we are seeking answers,” Ardern added. “I want to speak specifically about the firearms used in this terrorist act. I’m advised that there were five guns used by the primary perpetrator. There were two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns.”
In New Zealand, anyone who is 18 years or older and passes a background check can acquire semi-automatic weapons.
Trump expresses support for New Zealand
Speaking at the White House on Friday, President Trump expressed support for New Zealand in wake of the shooting.
“The United States is with them all the way,” Mr. Trump said. “New Zealand has been a great friend and partner for many years. What they’re going through is absolutely terrible. Our hearts are with them and whatever we can do.”
Earlier Friday, Mr. Trump tweeted his support, saying the U.S. would give any support it could.
“Just spoke to Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, regarding the horrific events that have taken place of the past 24 hours. I informed the Prime Minister that we stand in solidarity with New Zealand – and that any assistance the U.S.A. can give, we stand by ready to hep. We love you New Zealand,” he tweeted.
— Brian Pascus
“I will not give voice to this propaganda”
Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel expressed her revulsion toward the alleged gunman at a news conference Saturday morning local time.
“It is a act of cowardice he has performed,” Dalziel told reporters. “I guess there are no words to describe the revulsion I feel for the propaganda he wanted to bring to us. I will not give voice to this propaganda. His voice is the voice of hate.”
Dalziel then admitted she was shocked the massacre took place in her city. “Im very shocked that it has happened here, but I’m shocked it has happened in New Zealand,” she said. “The reason we have been targeted is because…we are a safe city and a safe country.”
She added, “This sort of extremism is not something we have seen here. He came here. He came here with hate in his heart. He came here to perform this act of terrorism.”
— Brian Pascus
Guns covered in white supremacist symbols
The livestreamed video of the attack on one of the mosques on Friday shows the gunman taking aim with two different rifles bedecked with myriad symbols used widely by the white supremacist movement online.
The symbols, which have become memes and been incorporated into the codified lexicon used by anonymous white nationalists in online chatrooms, range from references to battles against Muslim armies in Europe more than 1,000 years ago, to numbers that have come to represent the writings of Adolf Hitler.
Even the music playing in the gunman’s car as he arrives to the mosque had meaning; it was a nationalist Serb song from the war that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s, glorifying Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic, who is currently jailed for genocide and other war crimes against Bosnian Muslims.
Australian senator blames immigration for attack
An Australian senator with well-known anti-immigrant views has come under fire for blaming the horrific attack on the Muslim community in New Zealand on the country’s immigration policy rather than racist extremism.
“Does anyone still dispute the link between Muslim immigration and violence?” Sen. Fraser Anning of Queensland said in a tweet. Police in New Zealand have charged an Australian man with murder over the killings, which New Zealand’s leader was quick to label a “terrorist attack.”
Anning’s office released a statement earlier, which was later removed from his social media pages, in which the senator was quoted as saying, “the real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.”
His statement, which was quickly condemned by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, began with Anning saying he was, “utterly opposed to any form of violence in our community, and I totally condemn the actions of the gunman.”
White supremacists “borrowing” from “ISIS playbook”
New York Police Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller, a former CBS News special correspondent, told “CBS This Morning” that his force quickly decided to “increase police presence around mosques, around houses of worship,” on Friday as details of the New Zealand attack came in.
“You’ll see a public message of reassurance,” Miller said, noting that many Muslims would be attending mosques for traditional Friday prayers.
The NYPD said in a tweet that additional officers had been deployed to mosques in the city. Other major U.S. cities also announced that they would increase the police presence around mosques on Friday.
Miller said the New Zealand attack was further evidence that, “in terms of tactics, the neo-fascist groups, the white supremacists, are borrowing from the ISIS playbook.”
He said it was ISIS that first instructed its terrorist followers to “die live” — by broadcasting attacks in real time via social media platforms.
Miller said white nationalist extremism was something “we monitor very carefully. It’s something that has been emergent. We’re seeing an increase in the propaganda.”
Suspect claims others planning attacks
A law enforcement official told CBS News on Friday morning that the prime shooting suspect in custody, the Australian man who has been charged with murder, claimed other individuals were planning additional attacks on mosques in New Zealand.
There was no further information available on his claim. New Zealand police have said that three other individuals were initially taken into custody. One of them was quickly released and police were still trying to determine what role, if any, the other two people had in the attack.
CBS News law enforcement analyst Paul Viollis said Friday on CBSN that while it is entirely possible the shooter was a “lone wolf,” in the sense that he may not have had any affiliation with a broader group, he may have had some help.
Given the amount of planning that appears to have gone into the attack — which involved multiple firearms, reported explosives devices and attacks on separate locations — Viollis said it would have been hard for one person to plan and carry it out on their own.
U.S. government reacts to attacks
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement on Friday morning saying: “The United States strongly condemns the attack in Christchurch. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with the people of New Zealand and their government against this vicious act of hate.”
Soon after Sanders released the White House statement, President Trump sent a tweet expressing his “warmest sympathy and best wishes” for the people of New Zealand after what he called the “horrible massacre” in Christchurch.
President Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton said Friday that it “seems to be” a terror attack, but wouldn’t definitively use the label as New Zealand’s Prime Minister did.
The U.S. and New Zealand are partners through the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance, which also includes Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
U.S. intelligence sources told CBS News that they would be scouring their data bases on Friday for any reference to the suspect in New Zealand.
Shooting suspect who apparently livestreamed attack charged
Sources confirmed to CBS News on Friday that the man arrested and charged with murder for the mass-shooting attacks on two mosques in New Zealand is an Australian-born 28-year-old Brenton Harrison Tarrant.
Video that was apparently livestreamed on social media by the shooter shows the attack in horrifying detail.
The gunman sprayed innocent worshipers inside the Masjid Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch for more than two minutes before running back out to the street, where he takes aim at people down the sidewalk before returning to his car for a different weapon.
“I don’t know if he’s still alive or dead,” says mother of man who worshipped at mosque
Parents of a 35-year-old son was worshpping at the mosque on Friday afternoon told TV 3 New Zealand they had not heard from him. “I don’t know if he’s still alive or dead … we’ve been waiting and waiting and no news, so we came here to see if he’s inside the mosque dead. I just want to know any news about him,” the mother said.
The parents said they moved from Iraq to Christchurch 22 years ago to come to a safer country. They said he goes to the mosque every Friday.
The gunman referenced the 2nd Amendment in his manifesto
In the manifesto, the gunman rhetorically asked himself why he chose to use firearms, or guns, to carry out the attack. He answered that “I chose firearms for the affect it would have on social discourse,” adding that “with enough pressure the left wing within the united states will seek to abolish the second amendment, and the right wing within the U.S. will see this as an attack on their very freedom and liberty.”
“The U.S. into many factions by its Second Amendment, along state, social, cultural, and most importantly, racial lines,” he said.
Man claiming responsibility for shootings wrote of “white genocide”
In a manifesto that appears to have been posted around the time of the attack, a man who claimed responsibility for the shootings describes himself as an “ordinary” 28-year-old born in Australia. CBS News cannot confirm that it was actually posted by the attacker.
He says his parents are of Scottish, Irish and English descent and writes about what he calls “white genocide” driven by a “crisis of mass immigration.”
He says he carried out the attack “to show invaders that our lands will never be their lands…as long as the white man still lives.” He says “we must ensure the existence of our people, and future for white children.”
The purported shooter says he is a supporter of Donald Trump’s in one sense, but not completely: “As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no.”
Prime Minister: “It’s clear this is one of New Zealand’s darkest days”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a news conference that “it’s clear this is one of New Zealand’s darkest days.”
“Clearly what has happened here is an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence,” Ardern said.
Ardern said many of the people directly affected by the shooting may be migrants or refugees. “They have chosen to make New Zealand their home and they are us … there is no place in New Zealand for acts of unprecedented and extreme violence, which it is clear this is.”
Witness: “I saw dead people everywhere”
Witness Len Peneha told the Associated Press he saw a man dressed in black enter the Masjid Al Noor mosque and then heard dozens of shots, followed by people running from the mosque in terror.
“I saw dead people everywhere,” Peneha said. “There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque. It’s unbelievable nutty. I don’t understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. It’s ridiculous.”
