New Zealand shooting: Christchurch mosque gunman posted racist manifesto online before rampage
- Entitled ‘The Great Replacement’, the document said the gunman had wanted to attack Muslims
- He said that key point in his radicalisation was the defeat of the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen in 2017 polls
Police called for people not to share the video, which showed the gunman shooting repeatedly at worshippers from close range.
“Police are aware there is extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online,” New Zealand police said in a Twitter post.
“We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.”
AFP analysed a copy of the Facebook Live video, which shows a clean-shaven, Caucasian man with short hair driving to the Masjid al Noor mosque in central Christchurch, then shooting as he enters the building.
AFP determined the video was genuine through a digital investigation that included matching screenshots of the mosque taken from the gunman’s footage with multiple images available online showing the same areas.
The manifesto detailing motivations for the attack was posted on Friday morning onto a Twitter account with the same name and profile image as the Facebook page that streamed the attack.