Inside New Zealand shooter’s secret bullet-riddled gun range where he practised for Christchurch terror attacks
THIS is the secret haven where Christchurch gunman Brenton Tarrant practised hardcore target shooting before unleashing the horrific mosque massacres.
The 28-year-old ranted about guns and children while visiting the gun range – leaving fellow shooters “shaken”.
Tarrant is in custody, taken down by police after 50 people were gunned down in New Zealand on Friday.
And details of the Australian’s history have continued to emerge, with neighbours claiming he was a “buffed up weirdo ready to explode”.
News.com today revealed how the young man had moved to Dunedin – using a local shooting range as his secret haven ahead of the devastating massacre that has left the world reeling in shock.
Scattered gun shells lay around the range, while a hidden bunker with bird-shaped, rectangular, square and bullseye-shaped targets sits in a dirty bank.
Battered hole-filled targets of different shapes hang from a derelict metal frame, next to a white and red bowling pin ridden with bullet holes.
Brenton Tarrant was a member of the Bruce Rifle Club during his two to three years in the South Otago region of New Zealand, where he lived quietly in Dunedin, 45km north of the shooting range.
One New Zealand hunter said he had been left “shaken” after spending the day with the Australian-born man.
Dunedin hunter Tristan, 34, who had a polite nodding acquaintance with Tarrant over the last two years, said: “He shot like he meant it and with high powered [weapons]. You don’t need all that for hunting animals, which we do humanely.”
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Tarrant also allegedly made verbal rants about young skateboarders and his right to carry firearms which left one animal hunter “shaken” after spending a day shooting with the accused.
And terrifying details have revealed how he planned the massacre, giving up his rental home in Dunedin, in New Zealand’s South Island, just nine days before the shootings.
The attack on the two mosques came minutes after the 28-year-old allegedly sent his vile 73-page manifesto to several prominent email addresses, including the one belonging to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
In it, he described himself as “just a regular white man” from “a working class, low-income family”.
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A spokesman from Ms Ardern’s office confirmed the document was sent to a generic address not checked by the Prime Minister herself.
The death toll from Friday’s attack has risen to 50, and 36 injured people remain in hospital, with 11 in a critical condition.
A four-year-old girl is among those fighting for her life in Auckland’s Starship children’s hospital.
A version of this story originally appeared on news.com.au