Image Source: AP News

Agencies:

The white supremacist who slaughtered 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques had intended to burn down the mosques afterward, a prosecutor said in court Monday, while describing two of those praying as making heroic efforts to stop the mass shooting.

New details about the March 2019 attacks were outlined during the first day of a four day sentencing hearing at the Christchurch High Court. The hearing gave some families and survivors their first chance to confront the gunman.

"You killed your own humanity and I don't think the world will forgive you for your horrible crime," said a tearful Maysoon Salama, the mother of 33-year-old Atta Elayyan, who was killed in the attacks. "You thought you can break us. You failed miserably."

The gunman, 29-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, pleaded guilty in March to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism - the first terrorism conviction in New Zealand's history.

He could become the first person in New Zealand to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Tarrant was brought into the courtroom shackled and wearing a gray prison outfit. In the dock, unshackled and surrounded by five officers, he showed little emotion throughout the hearing. He occasionally looked around the room, tapped his fingers, and watched the survivors as they spoke.