The mother of a Christchurch mosque victim has revealed she was on the phone with her teenage son when he was shot and killed by the gunman.
Salwa Mustafa’s son Hamza, 16, who had been praying at Masjid Al Noor mosque with his brother Zaid, 13, and father Khaled, 44, called her moments after the man opened fire on Friday afternoon.
The phone call marked the final time the mum would talk to her son, who had been trying to flee the attack with his younger sibling.
‘He said: “Mum, there’s someone come into the mosque and he’s shooting us,” and he was running with his brother who had been shot in his leg,’ Ms Mustafa told Stuff.
Moments later, she heard the sound of gunshots followed by Hamza’s screams – the last thing she would ever hear from him.
Ms Mustafa said she called out after her son, but only heard ‘his little voice’ before the other end went silent.
She stayed on the phone for 22 minutes trying to get a response.
‘His phone was on, but I couldn’t talk to him, after that someone picked up the phone and told me your son can’t breathe, I think he’s dead,’ she said.
Zaid managed to flee the carnage, but Ms Mustafa’s husband Khaled, tragically, did not survive the attack.
Ms Mustafa spoke of her horror from Christchurch Hospital where Zaid is being treated for two gunshot wounds.
She described her late son, who was a student at Cashmere High School in southern Christchurch, as ‘the most wonderful boy’ who was ‘very caring and polite.’
Speaking of the shooter she said: ‘God will punish him, my son and my husband are in heaven now and we’re going after them, we’re going to follow them to the heavens.’
Hamza and Khaled are among the 50 worshipers who were shot and killed in New Zealand’s worst mass shooting allegedly carried out by Australian gunman Brenton Tarrant.
