Christchurch Terror Attack Inquest: Wife of Victim Forced to Leave Dying Husband
Saira Patel's husband Musa Patel was one of seven people who died after being shot at the Linwood Islamic Centre, following the massacre at nearby Al Noor Mosque on March 15, 2019.
Supported by her son, Patel told the inquest into the deaths that she and her husband were praying in separate parts of the mosque on the day of the attack.
Patel said she thought a tyre had blown when she heard a loud bang. A baby began to cry, and she could soon smell gunpowder.
She yelled, "Someone is shooting, someone is shooting" as people ran to escape.
When Patel found her bleeding husband, she told the Coroners Court she could hear him saying his "last prayer" as if he knew he was about to die.
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She said she was forced to leave when police arrived and started treating Musa Patel, an order that distressed her to this day.
"I think any dying person who is about to leave this world would be very desperately craving and needing to be close to their loved ones. My presence during his final moments would have made a big difference in my life and I think maybe his last moments of departing this world," she said.
She did not know her husband had died until the following day, when she approached then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who led her to a counsellor.
Patel said the counsellor showed her a photo of an unidentified man in hospital who was not her husband.
"I knew then that my husband was dead. There was no-one else who could have identified him, and this last unidentified man was my last hope," she said.
Patel thanked the doctors and paramedics who did everything they could to console her husband in his final moments.
"I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart," she said.
"I was trying to be with him in that last moment but maybe they were chosen to be with him."
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Dr Alison Wooding from nearby Piki Te Ora Medical Centre was one of the doctors who treated Musa Patel when staff went to the mosque to help the injured.
She told the court he was meant to be the first victim taken to hospital but realised he had died after he was moved onto a stretcher.
Wooding said she and others were talking to Musa Patel the entire time they cared for him, but she did not recall him ever responding.
Police officers gave evidence on Tuesday saying Musa Patel had been able to communicate with them at first but his condition deteriorated over time.
Wooding told the court she felt apprehensive and worried about the situation at the mosque, but safe and protected between armed and vigilant police officers.
Source: 1news.co.nz
