WARNING: contains distressing content.
The hero who chased the Christchurch terrorist away from the Linwood Islamic Centre has been singled out for special praise from the judge.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant (29) has admitted 51 counts of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of engaging in a terrorist act, after the gunman attacked Christchurch's Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre on March 15 last year during Friday prayers.
The Australian-born gunman pleaded guilty unexpectedly in March this year and is being sentenced in the High Court at Christchurch this week.
Justice Cameron Mander today heard the last of more than 80 victim-impact statements read over the past three days.
'Never forget these two eyes you ran from': Man who chased terrorist
Justice Mander told Abdul Aziz Wahabazadah that he had viewed the footage the terrorist took during last year's merciless killing spree.
“I've seen the video and I want to acknowledge your courage,” the judge said.
Mr Wahabazadah said if he had collared the gunman there would have been no need for a court hearing.
“You should thank God on that day I didn't catch you,” he said, starring intently at Tarrant.
When the mayhem started, the man said he went outside the mosque to find something with which to defend himself and was carrying an ATM machine when the shooter emerged.
Mr Wahabazadah said he initially thought the man dressed in military garb with a camera mounted to his helmet was there to protect them.
It soon became clear that was not the case.
He threw the machine but said the gunman ducked out of the way before returning with a volley of gunfire.
The victim dived behind a car.
Mr Wahabazadah told the court he went to a rear car park to pursue Tarrant but heard more shots fired inside the mosque.
Shortly afterwards, he thought he may turn the tables on the killer when he founded a discarded firearm.
“No bullets – lucky, it would've been a different story,” Mr Wahabazadah said.
It did not stymie his bravery.
The man chased Tarrant back to his vehicle and used the gun to smash a side window.
“I could see fear in his eyes for his own life,” said Mr Wahabazadah.
“He looked at me, gave me the finger and said 'I f***ing killed all of you'.”
The man said he chased the car as the killer fled through a red light.
When police arrived at the scene they saw Mr Wahabazadah carrying a weapon and suspected he may be the murderer.
“I don't blame police, they didn't know who they were looking for,” he said.
While at the station he heard from officers that Tarrant had been apprehended.
“I said to the police: 'give me 15 minutes with me in the cell with him. I want to see how much guts he's got without a gun'. They said 'no'. I know, because they have to follow the law,” he said.
As he left the courtroom he had a message for the defendant.
“Never forget these two eyes you ran from.”
Survivor paralysed for the rest of her life
Sazada Akhter sat in her wheelchair while her statement was read for her but had to leave court when the trauma of reliving the events became too much for her.
A gunshot in her back, sustained as she ran down Deans Ave away from the chaos, resulted in her spending nine days in a coma.
The last thing Mrs Akhter remembered before waking up in the hospital with tubes protruding from her was lying in the road reciting verses of the Koran as she bled.
The court heard she spent six months in hospital, undergoing numerous surgeries but doctors confirmed she would be paralysed for the rest of her life.
It may have been even worse had it not been for the actions of her husband Mohammad Mashud who saw what was unfolding and called out to her from the mosque entrance to run.
He escaped unscathed and spent a desperate few hours trying to find his wife during the fallout.
When the couple were reunited, it was 35 days before Mrs Akhter was able to talk.
“After the shooting every moment is still very hard. I can't do anything normal anymore,” she said.
Hamimah Tuyan was the wife of Zekeriya - “the last of the martyrs”.
After 48 days and 18 surgeries, the man succumbed to his injuries.
“He fought death until his last breath,” Mrs Tuyan said.
“He was my Imam, my bodyguard, my problem solver, my comforter, my best friend.”
She said she would miss her husband's cooking, his lame dad jokes, his light snores in the night and now faced the prospect of raising her children alone.
Tarrant, Mrs Tuyan said, was no different than ISIS.
“We are the survivors. I feel like you are the victim here,” she said.
'You're not actually a human'
Dunedin man Mustafa Boztas, who was shot in the leg during the attack, told the terrorist in the High Court at Christchurch this morning: “You are dead even though you can breathe.”
“You can live nowhere but the past, alone and lonely,” he said.
“You're not actually a human, not even animal, since animals are beneficial to the world... You'll be remembered, but as a scared killer and nothing more.”
Ahad Nabi's father Haji was among those killed.
“I do not forgive you for what you've done and while you're in prison you'll come to the reality that you're now in hell and only the fire awaits you,” he said.
“Your father was a garbage man and you became trash of society. He's ashamed of your identity. You deserve to be buried in a landfill.”
Like many others who have spoken in court, he stressed the killer's attempts to divide society had failed.
“Your wish is to make this world a racist cult of one colour, but you'll never succeed,” Ahad Nabi said.
“A peasant like you will never change the human race. My 71-year-old father would have broke you in half if you'd challenged him to a fight.”
Three-year-old victim 'adored by all'
Aden Diriye was the father of one of the youngest victims of the mass murder - shot as Tarrant systematically executed those at Al Noor Mosque.
Three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim was “adored by all”, he said.
“You have killed my son and to me that's as though you killed the whole of New Zealand,” Mr Diriye said.
“I will never forget how he would play in the mosque and made friends with every worshipper who entered, young and old... He loved to distribute the Koran.”
The proud father described how his son would pretend to be a police officer at home, and had a miniature uniform to match.
“I don't know you. I never hurt you, your father, your mother or any of your friends. Instead, I'm the type of person who would help you and your family with anything,” Mr Diriye said.
“I will never forgive you for what you have done.”
Mucaad's sister Khadra had never met her younger brother, but had a flight to New Zealand booked for just weeks after the attacks.
She spoke to the boy by video call before his untimely death and told him they would soon be united.
“As it turned out, I did not get to fulfil my promise to him,” she said.
Daughter of 'a hero'
Sara Qasem described herself as “daughter of a hero, daughter of a shining, glimmering man”.
Her father Abdelfattah survived Tarrant's first spray of bullets at Al Noor Mosque.
When the shooting stopped, rather than flee, he informed everyone that he was uninjured and asked who needed help. When the gunman returned, Abdelfattah was shot in the head.
“My sweet, devoted father never missed a Friday prayer,” Ms Qasem said.
“He stayed behind to help his brothers, doing for others before himself.”
She described the incident as “the darkest day of their lives” but there had since been “pockets of hope”.
Her students at the school where she taught now greeted her with “salaam alaikum” ("peace be upon you").
“In the end love wins and love will always win,” Ms Qasem said.
While shedding tears during her statement, she was quick to point out to the man in the dock that they were not for him.
She would never understand his cold-blooded spree, she said.
“I pity you, your coarse and tainted heart and your narrow view of the world. You would have to be so utterly miserable to be so close-minded and yet live in such a beautiful diverse world,” said Ms Qasem.
“I urge you to take a look around this courtroom and ask yourself who exactly is the 'other' here, right now. Is it us or is it you? I think the answer's pretty clear.”
Her sister Rawan was seven months pregnant when the tragedy happened.
Mr Qasem was going to visit her in Australia after the birth and she had kept the child's gender secret as a surprise. Instead, her son was born in Christchurch, amid overwhelming grief as she tried to support the rest of her family.
“If my son becomes an ounce of what my father was we will have succeeded,” Rawan Qasem said.
Mulki Abdiwahab spoke eloquently of the “sensory overload” she felt in the midst of the horror.
“Bullets screamed past my left ear... thuds of bodies hitting the floor... constant reverberation of gunfire and mayhem,” she said.
Though she was uninjured, the images of the aftermath, Mrs Abdiwahab said, now invaded her sleep.
“It was a cold, calculated choice to rob us of our peacefulness and you turned our place of worship into a living tomb,” she said.
“I hope you rot in jail.”
'Huge hole in my heart'
Sahadat Mohammed has fragments of bullet inside his lungs and beside his heart. It was too risky for surgeons to remove them and he told the court he worried that one day they would kill him.
Mr Mohammed could not longer work as a chef, never play cricket and football as he had once loved to do. Even running caused him pain.
John Milne's 17-year-old son Sayyad was shot in the head at Al Noor Mosque.
He held a photo of the teenager aloft and repeatedly shouted to the court “he tangata - the people”.
The retired teacher, truck driver, handyman and labourer, born and bred in Christchurch, said despite the loss he forgave the defendant.
“You're forgiven unconditionally. Please just remember his name, Sayyad,” Mr Milne spelled it out.
“Not a single bullet hit me - I wasn't even there - but there's a huge hole in my heart.”
He urged Justice Mander to send Tarrant back to Australia, though that is not a decision the judge will ultimately make.
Justice Mander will formally pass sentence tomorrow.
