The main suspect, Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old man from Australia, has been charged with murder for the attack on two mosques in the city, which occurred during afternoon prayer last Friday.
Tarrant’s rifles were scrawled with the names of attackers before him, and the inscriptions also cited several centuries-old victories by Europeans over Islamic forces.
“For Rotherham, Alexandre Bissonette (sic), Luca Traini,” one cartridge read.
Traini is an Italian neo-Nazi sympathiser who injured six African migrants in a series of racially-motivated drive-by shootings in Macerata on February 3, 2017.
Authorities reportedly seized several pieces of Nazi propaganda from his home following his arrest, including memorabilia associated with Italian neofascists and a copy of Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf.
Traini is currently serving 12 years in prison for motivated violence.
Traini claimed that the attack was an act of “revenge” for the death of a local woman, Pamela Mastropietro, whose body was found in suitcases days before the shooting.
Three Nigerian men were arrested in connection with her death, though no one has been convicted of the murder.
Weapons allegedly used by Brenton Tarrant during mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo: AAP)
Among the other phrases pictured on Tarrant’s equipment were the names of military commanders who fought battles against Muslims centuries ago, including Sebastiano Venier, a Venetian admiral who won a naval battle against the Ottoman Empire in 1571.
Also named on the weapons was Alexandre Bissonnette, a Canadian man who shot dead six people at a mosque in Quebec City in 2017.
