A soft-hearted and caring person, fun-loving and adventurous - this is how the family of a man who stabbed shoppers in a West Auckland supermarket remember him.

Ahamed Samsudeen was shot dead by police, ending his rampage that saw shoppers stabbed in a Woolworths in LynnMall.

A coronial inquest into his death is underway, part of which will look at his path to violent extremism, his attitude towards women and the time leading up to the attack.

The coroner has been given a glimpse into who Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen was before the attack, through evidence given by someone close to him. Samsudeen's family are no longer taking part in the inquest, but their interests are being represented by stand-by counsel. The person giving evidence cannot be named, but can be identified as a relative.

They told the court said Samsudeen grew up a happy child, always playful, funny and enthusiastic.

While living in Sri Lanka, Samsudeen was kidnapped and tortured "which wounded him physically [and] psychologically".

His father had refused to let members of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) hide weapons at his school in the years before Samsudeen was born in 1989.

By the time Samsudeen was 15 the Karuna paramilitary group had abducted his father, trying to get some documents and recordings about secret meetings with government ministers.

Samsudeen was also at home with his mother during a burglary while his father was overseas.

The relative wondered if those traumatic events came back to him in his isolation in New Zealand.

When Samsudeen moved here, the relative said he enjoyed his studies.

"He loved the culture and people in New Zealand."

Samsudeen was very empathetic toward Syrian refugees, the relative said, going so far as to letting a refugee stay in his apartment when he had nowhere else to go.

"Aathil never wanted to worry us over anything," the relative said.

The relative said Samsudeen fractured his spine while moving a microwave from his apartment to a mosque, leaving him bedridden.

"He was also online a lot during this time of recovery as he was unable to move anywhere. This period is what has exposed him too much to graphic material online," the relative said.

"Even when he experienced back pain, he insisted that he could and would take care of himself. Aathil is a loving person and he is very much strong minded."

The NZ Security Intelligence Service (SIS) had been alerted to Samsudeen after finding an account on social media in March 2016 under the name Aathill Al-Ceyloni Al-Moori.

The account had posted photographs and videos of graphic violence against Muslims on its public page, along with comments supporting violent extremism and ISIL (Islamic State, also known as ISIS) terrorist attacks overseas. It was later linked to Samsudeen.

In their statement, the relative said he would "always" argue with people on Facebook, and would especially defend people affected by the Syrian civil war.

"He didn't think that he was doing anything wrong. He thought he was helping Muslims who were suffering in other countries."

Ahamed Samsudeen coming out of the New Lynn train station, on the day of the attack on September 3, 2021.

Supplied

Authorities first arrested Samsudeen in 2017 at Auckland Airport, with the SIS believing he was travelling to Syria to join ISIL fighters.

The relative said when he was first arrested, Samsudeen argued he did not create any content and was only sharing what was already online.

"We thought the entire thing would be a misunderstanding and would be cleared up soon."

The relative said they would speak with Samsudeen while he was in prison, playing him Tamil and Bollywood songs for him through the phone.

"It is heartbreaking for me to think of how much stress he was under, and that this is why he would like to listen to songs through the phone so that he could relieve his worry and his loneliness," they said.

"I again had no idea about his suffering in those two years. He would always joke, poke fun at me but never reveal the reality of his own situation."

The relative believed Corrections did not want to release Samsudeen as they "couldn't prove their allegations at the time".

While back in the community, Samsudeen had told his father he felt like he was being followed. Samsudeen had been under surveillance at the time of the attack on 3 September, 2021.

The relative spoke about Samsudeen's growing distrust in the system, saying that over time it seemed he had lost trust in everyone.

Provoked?

Turning to the day of the attack, they believed something was done to provoke Samsudeen - the relative could not believe Samsudeen perpetrated the attack.

"It was not that he was short-tempered. He was drained of energy. He had

deteriorated completely and had no energy to execute a plan like this."

Samsudeen's life took a turn as a result of the way he was treated, they said.

"He was misunderstood, and his humanity was never known or appreciated."

The relative said Samsudeen was now defined by his final moments.

"We are devastated that he did not have our support or full understanding of his situation and that he suffered throughout these legal processes, and then also died without any family or close support present."

Their final request was to know the location where Samsudeen was buried.

"We have the right to see the place of his burial," the relative said. "We have so many questions about his last years and months of life and now also about his death. We wonder about the rushed way in which he was buried."