New Zealand govt awards two citizens for showing bravery in mosque attack

Two New Zealanders were honoured on Thursday with the country’s highest gallantry medal for confronting a white supremacist gunman during a 2019 terror attack on Christchurch mosques that killed 51 Muslims.

For their acts during the March 2019 shootings, Naeem Rashid, who died in the attack, and survivor Abdul Aziz were awarded the New Zealand Cross for exceptional bravery in a position of extreme peril.

The medal, which has only been bestowed twice previously, is New Zealand’s non-combat equivalent of the Victoria Cross, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

A total of eight persons earned bravery awards, including two police officers who detained gunman Brenton Tarrant as he attempted to flee the scene in a car.

The acts of those honoured, according to Ardern, likely averted the death toll from rising even higher.

“The courage demonstrated by these New Zealanders was selfless and extraordinary, they have our deepest respect and gratitude for their actions on that day,” she said.

Tarrant attacked Friday worshippers in Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque with an armoury of semi-automatic guns before moving on to the Linwood prayer centre and livestreaming the slaughter.

All of his victims were Muslim women, children, and the elderly.

Despite being injured in the shoulder, Rashid charged at Tarrant in the Al Noor mosque, partially knocking him down.

Tarrant shot and killed Rashid, whose son Talha was also slain, but by diverting the assailant, other people were able to flee.

When Tarrant arrived in Linwood, Aziz accosted him, tossing a credit card payment machine at him and mocking him to attempt to entice him outside into a parking lot.

He also exhibited an empty firearm that Tarrant had thrown away, prompting the gunman to escape, fearful that the weapon was loaded.