Dad-of-four Waseem Alsati makes hospital bed plea for prayers for four-year-old Elin as she fights for life
Waseem Alsati, 36, a muslim barber and dad-of-four, who was badly injured by white supremacist Australian killer Brenton Tarrant, 28, who shot dead 50 people inside two mosques in New Zealand, has pleaded for people to pray for his four-year-old daughter Elin (left), who was critically injured.
Mr Alsati has pleaded from his hospital bed for people around the world to pray for his daughter, Elin Daraghmeh Alsati, who was seriously injured and is undergoing treatment at the Starship Children’s Hospital, a specialist paediatric centre in Auckland – where she was airlifted for emergency care.
The child was with her dad, Waseem, at the Al Noor mosque when the gunman opened fire, with bullets hitting each of them several times.Waseem, 33, is said to be in a stable condition after surgery for a perforated bowel and to remove shrapnel from his pelvis, The Times reports.
Waseem, was an immigrant from Jordan who came to New Zealand five years ago for a “better life,” according to friends. He is currently recovering in hospital after being shot multiple times.
Tarrant, who has been described as an Australian Brit, opened fire on muslim worshippers with 50 people reported killed and 48 wounded in shootings at two mosque locations in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Tarrant has appeared in court accused of murder and was remanded in custody to appear again on April 5. Brenton Tarrant, live-streamed his rampage to Facebook from a head-mounted camera. Footage showed him firing indiscriminately at men, women and children from close range inside the Al-Noor mosque.
The attack, which came around the time people were attending the mosques for Friday prayers, was the deadliest in the nation’s history.
Brenton appeared to have published a document before the attack outlining his intentions and in which he espoused far right and anti-immigrant ideology.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the man as an “extremist, right-wing” terrorist. Police Commissioner Bush confirmed that the man was not known in advance to either New Zealand or Australian security services.
The first report of an attack came from the Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch. Witnesses told local media they ran for their lives, and saw people bleeding on the ground outside the building.
A second mosque in the suburb of Linwood was evacuated, but there were fewer details from that site. Police also defused “a number of IEDs [explosive devices] attached to vehicles”, Mr Bush said.
In footage filmed by the gunman driving towards the Al Noor mosque, it shows him driving around the corner from the entrance to the mosque, before taking weapons from his car, entering the mosque and firing at those inside. One unnamed survivor told TV New Zealand he saw the gunman shoot a man directly in the chest. The attacker reportedly targeted the men’s prayer room in the mosque, then moved to the women’s room.
“What I did was basically just waiting and praying, God please, let this guy run out of bullets,” the witness said.
“He came to this side, he shot this side, he went to another room and went to the ladies’ section and shot them. I just heard one of the ladies has died.”
A Palestinian man who asked not to be named told the AFP news agency he heard rapid gunfire and saw a man shot in the head.
“I heard three quick shots, then after about 10 seconds it started again – it must have been an automatic, no one could pull a trigger that quick,” he said.
“Then people started running out. Some were covered in blood.” A second mosque in the suburb of Linwood was also evacuated. The police commissioner said “multiple fatalities” were recorded at two locations. The Bangladesh national cricket team narrowly escaped the shooting. A reporter following the team, which was due to play New Zealand in a now-cancelled test match on Saturday, tweeted that the team had “escaped from a mosque near Hagley Park where there were active shooters”.
Player Tamim Iqbal tweeted that the “entire team got saved from active shooters”.
Bangladesh Cricket Board spokesman Jalal Yunus said most of the team had gone to mosque by bus and were about to go inside when the incident took place.”They are safe. But they are mentally shocked. We have asked the team to stay confined in the hotel,” he told the AFP news agency.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she will announce detailed gun law reforms within days, after the attack on two mosques.
Police say the killer used military-style assault weapons modified to make them more deadly for the attack – all of which is legal under current laws.
No specific details were given by the prime minister at her press conference on Monday, but she said they would made clear soon.
“This ultimately means that within 10 days of this horrific act of terrorism we will have announced reforms which will, I believe, make our community safer,” she said.
Ms Ardern said: “We have made a decision as a cabinet, we are unified.”
She also announced that an inquiry would look into the lead-up to the attacks, and what might have been done differently.
At the weekend, Ms Ardern said the suspect had a gun licence, obtained in November 2017, and owned five guns.
Earlier on Monday, gun retailer Gun City said it had sold four weapons to the alleged gunman online, but it did not sell him the high-powered weapon used in the mosque shootings.
CEO David Tipple told a news conference in Christchurch it had only sold him A-category weapons.
Under the country’s gun laws, A-category weapons can be semi-automatic but limited to seven shots. Video footage of the attacks appeared to show the gunman with a larger magazine round, which is also available legally.
There are an estimated 1.5 million privately owned firearms in the country. Since the attack there have been calls for semi-automatic weapons to be banned. Previous attempts to tighten gun laws have failed due to a strong gun lobby and a culture of hunting.
