New Zealand mosque shooter livestreamed killings on Facebook
March 14, 2019 | 11:53pm
The gunman who opened fire in a New Zealand mosque Friday local time reportedly livestreamed the slaughter on Facebook.
A disturbing video appears to show the gunman executing people inside the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch. Another video shows bodies piled up inside.
The video appears to have been taken from a GoPro attached to a helmet on the shooter’s head.
It shows a man driving through the streets of Christchurch and saying “Let’s get this party started” before pulling up to the mosque, entering and firing on worshippers.
The 17-minute video ends with the gunman driving away in a beige Subaru station wagon.
“There wasn’t even time to aim there was so many targets,” he can be heard saying.
New Zealand Police said they are aware of “extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online.”
“We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.”
A 16,000-word manifesto posted to a Twitter account that appears to belong to the shooter, called “The Great Replacement” has also been circulating on social media.
In the manifesto, the gunman, who identifies himself as a 28-year-old from Australia, rages against “Islamic invaders” who are “occupying European soil.”
He offers support for President Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” but not “as a policymaker and leader.”
He also writes that he carried out the attack so that “the aftershock of my actions will ripple for years to come, driving political and social discourse, creating the atmosphere for fear and change that is required.”
The Twitter account contained images of ammunition magazines with names scrawled across them in white marker, including the names of two mass shooters who targeted migrants and Muslims.
The semi-automatic weapon, which matches the one seen in the video, also includes the phrase “Here’s your migration compact!” seemingly referring to the Global Compact for Migration signed by the United Nations in December.
Tweets on the account also rant about Muslim people, birthrates, white genocide and terrorist attacks. The gunman seems to have been active on sites like 4Chan.
New Zealand police said a gunman armed with a semi-automatic weapon stormed two mosques and there have been multiple gunshots.