CCTV footage shows Ahamad Samsudeen before his knife attack at LynnMall supermarket. Video / Supplied
Two shoppers say they came face-to-face with a terrorist during a frenzied knife attack in an Auckland supermarket, saying he appeared “manic” and without emotion.
Ross Tomlinson and Michael Andrews were among a handful of shoppers who confronted Ahamed Samsudeen in the September 2021 attack, yelling abuse at him todistract him from stabbing shoppers and fending him off with a metal bollard.
They appeared today at a coronial hearing in Auckland, which is focusing on the day of the terror attack in a New Lynn Countdown supermarket in September 3, 2021. Because CCTV footage of the incident does not have audio, Coroner Marcus Elliott is hearing from eyewitnesses to describe what they heard on the day.
Tomlinson said he had been in the supermarket for a few minutes when he heard yelling, which he assumed to be children misbehaving or a domestic dispute.
A young man ran past him, and Tomlinson asked him what was happening.
“That guy’s got a knife and is stabbing people,” the man replied.
Ross Tomlinson, an ex-paramedic who helped treat two of the critical victims at the New Lynn terror attack at Countdown in September 2021. Photo / Alex Burton
Tomlinson began running towards where the man was pointing. A lawyer assisting the coroner, Anna Adams, asked why he went towards the danger rather than away from it.
He saw a man holding a large kitchen knife standing over a woman lying on the floor, later identified as Ezmerelda (Ezzi) Johns. She had been stabbed multiple times, he said.
During the next chaotic minutes, Tomlinson said he picked up two tins out of a shopping trolley to throw at the terrorist.
Samsudeen moved into another aisle but returned again, and moved towards Tomlinson. He said he came within “three or four feet” of him.
“I told him several times to drop the knife. He was pacing towards me, his breathing was heavy, with a deranged look on his face, it was neither happy nor angry, but deranged and manic.”
Andrews said Samsudeen appeared calm, saying “Allahu Akbar” to himself repeatedly, and a little tired. At one point, he came within 1.5m of him.
“I firmly stated ‘Your god does not condone this’ to him,” he said.
Both Tomlinson and Andrews ran to the front of the supermarket and picked up metal bollards to fend off Samsudeen.
Armed police outside the New Lynn Countdown supermarket following a terrorist atttack in which six people were stabbed in September, 2021. Photo / Alex Burton
When Tomlinson found the attacker, he was standing over another survivor, Judith Beazley, and stabbing her.
“I specifically remembered it was the baby aisle,” he said.
At that point, another shopper wearing high-visibility clothing ran at Samsudeen and pushed him, while the man’s partner shouted at him to stop.
A group of shoppers then yelled at Samsudeen, trying to distract him and get him to drop the knife.
“I was holding the metal pole towards him with the round end towards him,” Andrews said.
“He swung the knife towards me. He was close enough to harm me and I was now worried that the pole was too heavy to defend me.”
A few seconds later, two plainclothes officers who had been surveilling Samsudeen ran into the aisle, yelled at him to drop the knife, and shot at him 12 times, killing him.
“I heard a pop, pop, pop noise which sounded like a firecracker going off,” Andrews said.
“The commands from the police were very, very, clear,” Tomlinson said.
“There is no world where he didn’t hear that command, and was given every opportunity to drop that weapon. He didn’t do so. They acted in my best interests to save my life.”
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has previously said the police officers were justified in shooting Samsudeen, an Islamic State supporter who was being surveilled because of concerns that he would commit a “lone wolf” attack.
One of the key questions which the coroner is considering - at the request of survivors - is whether Special Tactics Group officers should have followed Samsudeen into the supermarket, and whether this would have prevented the violence.
Earlier in the hearing, Detective Senior Sergeant Jason McIntosh said officers did not follow him into the supermarket because of a range of factors, including intelligence which did not indicate that he was at high risk of carrying out an attack.
In all, five people were seriously injured in the knife attack, which lasted around two minutes.
Isaac Davison is an Auckland-based reporter who covers Auckland Issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics, social issues and healthcare.
