Accused gunman's cousin calls for him to get the death penalty
A relative of the accused Christchurch shooter has spoken out about the tragedy that claimed 50 lives, saying Brenton Tarrant deserves the death penalty.
Donna Cox, Tarrant’s cousin, said she was devastated to learn of his identity after he had been arrested and charged following the mass shooting that occurred in two mosques on New Zealand’s south island on Friday.
Tarrant, 28, live streamed some of the massacre on the internet and released a 74-page manifesto before loading his vehicle with guns and heading to the first location on Deans Avenue in the city’s centre.
“He deserves the death penalty for what he’s done,” Ms Cox told Sunday Night.
“And that hurts me to say that because he is family, but for somebody who’s taken that many lives of other people, it’s only fair that he deserves that same thing.”
The death-count rose to 50 on Sunday after another body was found. Among the youngest victims is a three-year-old boy.
Ms Cox, who is a mother of five, found the slaughtering of young children the hardest part to accept.
“That hurts really bad. I have a little girl that’s a year off being four and I couldn’t imagine anyone taking her life like that. So I can just imagine how the families, the children, the family of anybody, what they’re going through right now,” she said.
Tarrant, from Grafton in NSW, has been described by his former school mates as a ‘class clown’ who would often get in trouble but was generally well-liked.
“He wasn’t raised like that, but I’m not here to defend him,” Ms Cox said. “There’s no excuses for that. I just don’t know why. If I could ask him that, I’d ask him why. How could you do that?
“That’s a twisted mind right there. You’d have to be to be able to do something like that. That’s not normal. It’s definitely not normal. That’s not him. What changed? That’s definitely somebody else.
“I hurt more for his mother, his sister, because he was never raised like that, in that sort of environment, you know? There was no violence. No family’s perfect, but certainly nothing like that. Definitely not.”
Tarrant appeared in court on Saturday morning and has been charged with one count of murder. He is expected to face further charges over the deaths.
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