Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen (1989-3 September 2021) was a Sri Lankan Islamic State sympathizer who carried out a mass stabbing at a Countdown supermarket in Auckland, New Zealand on 3 September 2021, injuring 7 people. Samsudeen was shot dead by tactical officers who had been assigned to tail him due to his paranoia and radical views.
Biography[]
Ahamed Samsudeen posing with a rifle
Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen was born in Kattankudy, Sri Lanka in 1989 to a Muslim family, and he arrived in New Zealand in 2011 on a student visa. He sought refugee status as a Tamil Muslim, and he was granted refugee status after he claimed to have been physically harmed by Sri Lankan authorities. While living in New Zealand, Samsudeen was radicalized by his Iraqi and Syrian neighbors, and, in 2016, he reposted graphic images of Islamic State executions and celebrated the 2016 Brussels bombings. On 29 April and 25 May 2016, police formally warned Samsudeen against posting objectionable material on the web, and he apologized and deleted his social media account. However, on 20 May 2017, he was arrested at Auckland Airport before he could fly to Malaysia, as he had told a fellow worshipper at his mosque that he intended to fly to Syria to fight for ISIL. The police found a large hunting knife, fundamentalist material, and photographs of Samsudeen posing with a firearm at Samsudeen's apartment, and, in August 2018, he carried a knife while on bail and was rearrested. In September 2018, he was sentenced to 12 months' supervision, but his trial dragged on for years while he was free on bail. On 16 July 2021, he was again released on bail after spending three years in prison, but he was trailed by a police surveillance team and a tactics team because of his radical views. On 3 September 2021, he entered the LynnMall Countdown supermarket in New Lynn, Auckland, shopping for ten minutes before taking a knife from the shelf and stabbing five people; another person was injured with a dislocated shoulder and another only lightly wounded, later self-treating at home. Two tactical officers who had been tailing Samsudeen responded to the stabbing incident within a minute, and they shot the attacker a minute later after he refused to surrender and attempted to charge them.