The Star: March 21, 2019
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>March</strong> <strong>21</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
8<br />
NEWS<br />
news online at www.star.kiwi<br />
Face to face with the killer: He<br />
ESCAPE: Khaled Al-Jammali gets a kiss from his son Mahmoud. His other son Hamoud and<br />
daughter Tala are just as pleased to have their father home. PHOTO: ALAN GIBSON<br />
KHALED AL-JAMMALI came<br />
face to face with the killer in the<br />
Masjid Al Noor on Friday. <strong>The</strong><br />
gunman raised his weapon and<br />
pointed it at Al-Jammali, who<br />
thought to himself – this is the<br />
end.<br />
But then, for reasons unknown<br />
to Al-Jammali, the gunman<br />
didn’t fire. Instead he swivelled<br />
and shot the person beside<br />
him, and then turned away and<br />
opened fire in a different direction.<br />
“I don’t know why he didn’t<br />
shoot me. He shot the guy<br />
beside me and killed him, and<br />
then turned to the other side<br />
to kill my other friends in the<br />
other corner,” Al-Jammali told<br />
the New Zealand Herald.<br />
“I was one of the luckiest<br />
persons . . . God just saved me<br />
from the bullets and his machine<br />
gun.”<br />
Al-Jammali was a regular<br />
visitor to Masjid Al Noor. Every<br />
Friday, because of a leg injury, he<br />
took a seat near the window to<br />
pray. When the serenity of prayer<br />
time was interrupted by gunfire,<br />
he became confused.<br />
“I never imagined that this is<br />
guns because we are in a safe,<br />
great country, a very safe country.<br />
Normally I can’t imagine<br />
that this would happen. No way.<br />
“I realised the truth when he<br />
came in front of me and start<br />
killing the people. I realised . . .<br />
I’m going to be dead.”<br />
After Al-Jammali had been<br />
spared, he jumped out of the<br />
window. He cut his knee on<br />
broken glass in the process – and<br />
was then trampled by the rush of<br />
people that crashed over him like<br />
a wave.<br />
“Everyone was just so scared<br />
. . . many people trying to get<br />
out, it was very hard. At the same<br />
time, we could hear the shots<br />
being fired.”<br />
Al-Jammali pulled himself up<br />
and joined the others running<br />
for their lives through the backyard<br />
and then jumping the fence<br />
to the neighbouring property.<br />
He found a spot to lie down<br />
and hide, only allowing himself<br />
to stand up and survey what had<br />
happened after police arrived<br />
and secured the scene.<br />
“I saw two or three kids killed,<br />
a small girl killed on the street.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were a lot of bodies at the<br />
mosque while they were starting<br />
to move the injured people.<br />
“He killed innocent victims,<br />
my friends, kids and children,<br />
just killed them in cold blood.”<br />
As Al-Jammali had only<br />
suffered minor injuries to his<br />
knee and his back, he was one<br />
of the last people to be taken to<br />
hospital.<br />
“I was shocked, very shocked,<br />
so I can’t really remember.<br />
Around the same time, his<br />
<strong>21</strong>-year-old son Mahmoud was<br />
distraught trying to find his<br />
father.<br />
Mahmoud was late to Friday<br />
prayers that day, and by the<br />
time he arrived, the gunman<br />
had already left a trail of dead<br />
bodies.<br />
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