Geraldo Rivera said that the shooting which took place at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, was perpetrated by a “mass murdering fiend” who was driven by the immigration crisis. While speaking with Fox & Friends on Monday morning , per Fox News , the Fox correspondent-at-large weighed in on the tragedy, and asked why it took local police officers 17 minutes to respond to the tragedy.
“The manifesto seems to indicate this particular crazy mass murdering fiend was motivated by the immigration crisis. He said that he is a white nationalist, a 28-year-old Australian white nationalist,” he said on Fox News . “Immigration is as hot an issue there as it is here or in Great Britain.”
“This was a butcher out to get a butcher’s bill. And indeed, if there were three or four perpetrators, this is a very, very serious attack. They’re all white nationalists. That’s an escalation of the violence that is horrifying,” Rivera added.
The former talk show host said that the mosque victims were sitting ducks as they prayed in their place of worship, and asked why it took police 17 minutes to respond to the crisis, adding that New Zealand police are often unarmed. He then opined that every place of worship should have an armed guard at all times while people are worshiping.
Geraldo Rivera: “Mass murdering fiend” in New Zealand motivated by “immigration crisis” https://t.co/afm7e8Mz7t pic.twitter.com/cyfNmtJWkJ
— The Hill (@thehill) March 15, 2019
Guns were restricted in New Zealand following the 1990 Aramoana massacre, in which a resident of the small town of Aramoana went on a shooting spree The gunman ended up killing 13 people, including one police officer, after getting into an argument with his neighbor. The killer was shot and killed by police after an intense day-long manhunt.
In 1992, New Zealand made sweeping changes to their gun laws, adding restrictions on semi-automatic weapons and requiring photo ID for gun owners.
The alleged New Zealand killer comes from Australia, which has recently restricted its own gun laws in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. In that event, 35 people were killed by a mentally ill shooter in Tasmania. As a result, the country restricted the ownership of self-loading rifles and shotguns, and initiated a firearms buyback program to get weapons off of the street.
Shortly after appearing on Fox & Friends , Rivera called out people who were blaming Donald Trump’s language for causing the New Zealand mosque shooting, asking how people explain the Orlando Pulse night club shooting, the San Bernadino shooting, or the Sandy Hook massacre.
The New Zealand shooter allegedly hailed Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” in a 73-page manifesto that he wrote prior to the event.
