CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZELAND – MARCH 15, 2019 In the New Zealand city of Christchurch, there was a terrorist attack on two mosques, Al Noor and Linwood. During the attacks, 51 people died (two of them in the hospital, the rest on the spot) and another 50 were injured. The attacker filmed the shooting with a camera placed on his head and streamed it live on social networks. Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian citizen, was arrested in connection with the attacks. He denied guilt, but in March 2020 he confessed to the crime.

Brenton Tarrant

The footage was originally posted on Facebook, but the 17-minute video was quickly deleted. At the time of the attack at the first Al Noor mosque, there were 300-500 people inside who had come for Friday prayers. When the attacker finished his work there, he drove to the second Linwood mosque, where 10 more people were killed. However, one man managed to disarm the attacker and force him to run away.

Video 1 - Attack on Al Noor Mosque

Immediately after the attacks, the police detained 4 people they had in their records as anti-Islamic terrorists. After a detailed interrogation of each of them, Brenton Harrison Tarrant remained the only suspect. Brenton was also found to be in possession of all the weapons used in the attacks. He owned them legally.

Brenton is an extremist anti-Islam activist who long before the attacks declared himself a Nazi on Twitter, where he shared Nazi symbols and anti-Islam slogans. Shortly before the attack, he posted his manifesto “The Great Replacement” on the Internet forums 8chan and 4chan. In it he wrote about conspiracy theories about world plans to exterminate the white race. He labeled Muslims there as immigrants and invaders. He called himself a racist.

He probably found inspiration for the attack in Serbian neo-Nazis and warriors who fought against Muslims in history. But he also quoted Donald Trump or the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.

Tarrant was charged at trial with 51 murders and 40 attempted murders. He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment.