The New Zealand shooter attacked two separate mosques, a larger one in the center of the city of Christchurch and after that a smaller one a little further away called Linwood mosque. According to an eyewitness, that second shooting stopped when a brave man saw an opportunity and seized the shooter’s gun. Syed Mazharuddin told the New Zealand Herald he was on the ground taking cover but could see what happened:

“By the time I took cover this guy came through the main entrance door and it’s a small mosque – there were about 60-70 people there.

“Just around the entrance door there were elderly people sitting there praying and he just started shooting at them.”…

“The young guy who usually takes care of the mosque … he saw an opportunity and pounced on [the gunman] and took his gun,” Mazharuddin said.

“The hero tried to chase and he couldn’t find the trigger in the gun … he ran behind him but there were people waiting for him in the car and he fled.”

The shooter fled the scene with the man who took his gun chasing him. It definitely sounds like the murder spree could have continued for several more minutes at the Linwood mosque if not for the action of this one person. Apparently, there was someone at the other mosque involved in this spree who also tried to take the shooter’s gun but was killed in the process:

Al-Nobani also recounted one man who attempted to take the gun from the shooter.

“One guy he jump for him, try to take the gun from him. He shot him straight away. I try to follow him, but I can’t,” he said.

As usual, after an event like this, the shooter is getting a lot of attention. It’s understandable though it doesn’t seem that complicated in this case. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about some of the victims and the people who were heroes in the worst situation imaginable.

Video of the interviews with the witnesses is available here for now. Once it can be embedded I’ll add it below.