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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARcH 15, 2019
Mosque shootings kill 49 people;
white racist claims responsibility
Graphic video of
attack livestreamed
by shooter to world
By NICK PERRY
and MARK BAKER
Associated Press
CHRISTCHURCH, New
Zealand — At least 49 peo-
ple were killed in mass
shootings at two mosques
full of worshippers attending
Friday prayers in an attack
broadcast in horrifying, live
video by an immigrant-hat-
ing white nationalist wield-
ing at least two rifles.
One man was arrested
and charged with murder,
and two other armed sus-
pects were taken into cus-
tody while police tried to
determine what role they
played.
“It is clear that this can
now only be described as a
terrorist attack,” Prime Min-
ister Jacinda Ardern said,
noting that many of the vic-
tims could be migrants or
refugees.
She pronounced it “one
of New Zealand’s darkest
days.”
The attack shocked peo-
ple across the nation of 5
million people, a country
that has relatively loose gun
laws but is so peaceful even
police officers rarely carry
firearms.
The gunman behind at
least one of the mosque
AP Photo/Mark Baker
People wait outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand.
shootings left a 74-page
manifesto that he posted on
social media under the name
Brenton Tarrant, identify-
ing himself as a 28-year-old
Australian and white nation-
alist who was out to avenge
attacks in Europe perpe-
trated by Muslims.
Using what may have
been a helmet camera, he
livestreamed to the world
in graphic detail his assault
on worshippers at Christ-
church’s Al Noor Mosque,
where at least 41 people
were killed. An attack on a
second mosque in the city
not long after killed several
more.
Police did not identify
those taken into custody and
gave no details except to say
that none of them had been
on any watch list. They did
not immediately say whether
the same person was respon-
sible for both shootings.
At least 48 people, some
in critical condition, were
being treated at Christ-
church Hospital for gunshot
wounds, authorities said.
While there was no rea-
son to believe there were
any more suspects, the prime
minister said the national
threat level was raised from
low to high. Police warned
Muslims against going to a
mosque anywhere in New
Zealand. And Air New Zea-
land canceled several flights
in and out of Christchurch,
saying it couldn’t prop-
erly screen customers and
baggage.
Police said the investiga-
tion extended 360 240 miles
to the south, where homes
in Dunedin were evacuated
around a “location of inter-
est.” They gave no details.
Ardern
alluded
to
anti-immigrant sentiment
as the possible motive, say-
ing that immigrants and ref-
ugees “have chosen to make
New Zealand their home,
and it is their home. They
are us.”
As for the suspects, the
prime minister said, “these
are people who I would
describe as having extremist
views that have absolutely
no place in New Zealand.”
Witness Len Peneha
said he saw a man dressed
in black enter the Al Noor
mosque and then heard doz-
ens of shots, followed by
people running out in terror.
Peneha, who lives next
door, said the gunman ran
out of the mosque, dropped
what appeared to be a
semi-automatic weapon in
his driveway and fled. He
said he then went into the
mosque to try to help the
victims.
“I saw dead people every-
where. There were three in
the hallway, at the door lead-
ing into the mosque, and
people inside the mosque,”
he said. “I don’t understand
how anyone could do this to
these people, to anyone. It’s
ridiculous.”
He added: “I’ve lived
next door to this mosque for
about five years and the peo-
ple are great, they’re very
friendly. I just don’t under-
stand it.”
He said the gunman was
wearing a helmet with some
kind of device on top, giv-
ing him a military-type
appearance.
In the video that was
apparently
livestreamed,
the gunman spends more
than two minutes inside
the mosque spraying terri-
fied worshippers with bul-
lets again and again, some-
times firing at people he has
already cut down.
He then walks outside,
where he shoots at people
on the sidewalk. Children’s
screams can be heard in the
distance as he returns to his
car to get another rifle. The
gunman then walks back
into the mosque, where there
are at least two dozen people
lying on the ground.
After going back out-
side and shooting a woman
there, he gets back in his
car, where the song “Fire”
by the English rock band
The Crazy World of Arthur
Brown can be heard blast-
ing. The singer bellows, “I
am the god of hellfire!” and
the gunman drives away.
The second attack took
place at the Linwood mosque
about 5 3 miles away.
Mark Nichols told the
New Zealand Herald that
he heard about five gun-
shots and that a prayer-goer
returned fire with a rifle or
shotgun. Nichols said he
saw two wounded people
being carried out on stretch-
ers past his automotive
shop.
Fine: Forgiveness program could help homeless climb out of debt
The right direction
continued from Page A1
they can’t pay fines, advo-
cates say.
Kaino is often willing to
reduce or even forego fining
people at Municipal Court if
he knows they are homeless
or have little, if any, finan-
cial means.
But when people don’t
show up, the court can’t
know their situation and has
few options but to issue a
failure to appear and keep
adding fines to the underly-
ing ticket.
For Crone, it long felt
wiser to avoid court hearings.
After all, who knows what
will happen if you put your-
self at the mercy of the judge.
There are several mod-
els across the country for
fine forgiveness or clean-
slate programs. There are
special courts that try to
ease the burden of fines and
fees for infractions that the
homeless are often ticketed
for, so-called quality-of-life
crimes like urinating in pub-
lic, consuming alcohol in
public, trespassing or camp-
ing in parks.
A
subcommittee
appointed by the homeless-
ness task force is still try-
ing to figure out exactly
how such a program would
work on the North Coast.
These programs can come
with significant costs to cit-
ies. Subcommittee mem-
bers are already seeing how
difficult it could be to try to
address problems faced by
the homeless and still be fair
to everyone.
After all, even peo-
ple who have housing may
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Sam McDaniel talks with a customer at his market in downtown Astoria.
struggle to pay court fines,
said Jonah Dart-McLean,
the city’s parks maintenance
supervisor, who serves on the
subcommittee.
“We’re trying to figure
out what the solutions are so
we’re not excluding people
who are maybe on the fringe
of being homeless,” he said.
The subcommittee is
moving slowly, but hopes to
have an update for the task
force at a meeting in April.
The benefits of this kind
of program are clear, they
say.
It has the potential to
not only give people more
options to deal with fines, but
to also give them a path for-
ward, said Alan Evans, the
executive director for Help-
ing Hands, a nonprofit that
offers sobriety and re-entry
programs to the homeless.
Community
service
allows people to give back
and integrate with their com-
munity in a healthy way, said
Evans, who serves on the
subcommittee.
Court records and debt are
often huge barriers for the
homeless as they try to regain
stability.
“Part of their re-entry
into society is to take care
of those fines,” Evans said.
“Now, when you’re attempt-
ing to get your life back in
order and back to a place
where you may be able to
sustain affordable housing
in our community, a $500 or
$750 fine hanging over your
head could be the difference
between you getting to the
point where you can sustain
yourself or not.”
He believes many people
will leap at the opportunity to
work off their fines.
Hansen, the police depart-
ment’s homeless liaison offi-
cer, has identified several
homeless people he thinks
would benefit from fine fore-
giveness. Like Crone, they
possess a key trait: They are
ready to do the work to better
their situations.
Hansen believes fine for-
giveness works well for this
type of person. Crone, he
said, “has the will to take
care of things to be a respon-
sible citizen.”
A month after his court
hearing, Crone sat tucked
in a corner at the Astoria
Downtown Market on Com-
mercial Street. Sam McDan-
iel, the market’s owner,
lets Crone and several oth-
ers who are homeless or
recently homeless and strug-
gling to stay sober hang out
in the store.
“This is my little safety
zone,” Crone said.
For Crone, the market
is a place to get away from
habits, temptations and
the myriad issues he may
encounter on the streets. He
sometimes rests there before
heading off to a work shift
elsewhere.
He is working with Han-
sen to patch together vol-
unteer hours with sev-
eral nonprofits, but has not
made much of a dent in his
required 40 hours.
Nor does the Municipal
Court’s leniency in February
mark the end of his financial
struggles.
He estimates he owes
well over $100,000 in
unpaid hospital bills and
court fines that have accu-
mulated and long since gone
to collection agencies here
and in other states. His credit
is shot. He works at odd jobs
under the table, worried that
an on-the-books job would
bring collection agencies
down on his head.
“It’s frustrating,” Crone
said. “A lot of it’s in collec-
tions. Just the stuff I had here
— that doesn’t even touch
the beginning of it all.”
But, he said, it is a big
step in the right direction.
Warrenton: Struggles with homelessness, sees a growing problem
continued from Page A1
through the winter.
Unlike Astoria, Warren-
ton has mostly been able
to forgo the kinds of diffi-
cult policy discussions over
how to provide services that
are tied to dealing with a
larger homeless population.
In the past three to five
years, though, Workman
believes the city has seen an
increase in the number of
people who stay during the
warmer months. It was why
he and his officers hoped
to develop a formal strat-
egy this year for how they
address issues like camping
and how they refer people
to social services.
“Because we want to
be consistent with peo-
ple,” Workman said, add-
ing, “There’s always a
small percent that do com-
mit crimes … but over the
last couple years we’ve
seen everything from peo-
ple who are homeless as a
lifestyle choice to they’re
homeless for a reason like
they lost a job, or family
circumstances.”
Workman believes the
homeless population went
down with the shift to
cold weather this year, but
Lampi says Warrenton feels
very different from when he
was growing up.
He and his young chil-
dren have frequently run
into people who appear to
be homeless during walks
on trails near Tansy Point.
Though he’s not worried for
his safety, it has made him
hesitant to take his chil-
dren on the trails because
he doesn’t know what they
will encounter.
Bridgens described a
camp full of trash on Port
of Astoria property off Har-
bor Drive that she and her
husband brought to the
Port’s attention and helped
clean up in the last week.
She knows of other camps
on property owned by the
Nygaard family.
Several businesses have
actively cleared brush
around buildings in the
last year to make the areas
less attractive for clandes-
tine camping. In Hammond,
Workman said the Point
Adams Research Station
took down a lot of shrub-
bery for the same reason.
Last
year,
police
received a number of calls
about homeless camps and
conducted a major sweep
of large encampments in
wooded areas not far from
the Goodwill parking lot.
During a joint meeting
between the City Commis-
sion and the city’s Park
Advisory Board in Janu-
ary, park board members
briefly noted their concerns
about more visible drug use
and homelessness at the
Skipanon River Park near
downtown.
Meanwhile, the group
behind
the Warrenton
Warming Center has had
to shift what it offers in the
last year. They are no longer
able to provide emergency
shelter, according to City
Commissioner Rick New-
ton. Instead, the group has
provided lunches at differ-
ent locations. They plan to
hold a lunch at Lighthouse
Park at noon this Sunday.
Panhandlers at spots like
the intersections near Fred
Meyer or Costco remain the
more visible signs of War-
renton’s homeless. While
they are allowed to be
there, police occasionally
have to intervene if a per-
son is causing a safety issue
by darting between cars or
aggressively panhandling.
“It’s hard because I think
there are people with legit-
imate needs,” Workman
said, “and there are people
who are using this as a part-
time job.”