‘LIVES WERE SAVED’

New Zealand Shooting Suspect Planned Third Attack, Say Cops

Gunman was stopped on his way to kill more.

The man accused of carrying out Friday’s deadly terror attack in New Zealand was on his way to carry out a third shooting before he was stopped by authorities, police have said. Fifty people were killed when a gunman opened fire inside two mosques last week. Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged with murder in connection with the incident and more charges are expected. Police Commissioner Mike Bush, New Zealand’s top police official, said Wednesday that authorities “absolutely” believe they stopped the suspect “on the way to a further attack,” CNN reports. “Lives were saved,” he went on, but the commissioner declined to offer further details to the media so as not to “traumatize others.” Meanwhile, a father and son who fled the civil war in Syria for “the safest country in the world” were buried before hundreds of mourners in Christchurch on Wednesday morning in what were the first funerals for victims of the shootings. The father and son were Khalid Mustafa, 44, and Hamza Mustafa, 15.

opinion

OPPORTUNITY ACCOSTING

The NZ Mosque Massacre Blame Game Already Has Gone Too Far

Maajid Nawaz