Accused New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, one of four suspects in custody in connection to the attack, is a personal trainer from Australia who visited North Korea, where he was photographed in a tour group visiting the Samjiyon Grand Monument.

Tarrant, 28, is the son of parents who divorced when he was young. His father, who died in 2010 at age 49, was a garbage man who became a competitive triathlete who represented Australia.

He described himself as an "ordinary white man who decided to take a stand," worked at the Big River Gym in New Zealand from 2009 to 2011, according to gym manager Tracey Gray.

“He was a very dedicated personal trainer,” Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “He worked in our program that offered free training to kids in the community, and he was very passionate about that. He was very good, very dedicated with his training. He would train a lot, and some could say quite excessively, but then he was passionate about health and fitness and making those changes in his personal space.”

Gray said after Tarrant left the gym in 2011, he funded travel to Europe and Asia through cryptocurrency like bitcoin. Gray cited Tarrant’s travels, which included a stop in North Korea, as the reason he changed. She also mentioned that his father died while Gray was in high school, due to an asbestos-related illness.

An obituary for Rodney Tarrant in 2010 said he died of cancer at the age of 49. He was divorced from Brenton's mother, Sharon Fitzgerald, an English teacher.

The obituary stated that in 1991, the Tarrant family travelled to Hawaii so Rodney Tarrant could fulfill his dream of finishing the Hawaiian Iron Man triathlon. "Rodney finished 334th out of 1400 competitors for the event that required competitors to complete a 3.8km swim, 180.2 km cycle and a 42.2 km run. In 1995 Rodney was selected in the Australian team to compete at the Japan Strongman Triathalon Championships where he finished 58th in a field of 1300."

It concluded: "Despite his marriage breaking up not long after the birth of his second child, this didn't deter Rodney, who remained committed to his children until tragically losing his battle with cancer."

A family photo taken in the 1990s showed Brenton — a toddler with a curly mop of hair — in his father's arms. Rodney is wearing a Gold Coast Marathon T-shirt, and his wife and daughter are beside him.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on a number of online postings he made. In 2011, Tarrant posted about the death of his father a year earlier, saying: "Recently came into contact with a bit of capital due to the passing away of my father,” he posted on a stock forum in 2011. “Really don’t want to lose the money as he paid for it with 30+ years of his life."

A month later, he boasted about his confidence: "Truthfully I am extremely confident in every situation but talking over the phone,” he said in the same post. “I run fitness classes with 20+ people daily who do nothing but stare/ask questions and mimic my movements for 60mins and I enjoy it. My self respect is through the roof, I can truly do anything I put my mind to."

“Looking to buy sometime from the 2nd of June till the 9th June, willing to fly to any capital city in Australia to buy the van and pay by cash, direct debit or cheque,” he said on a travel forum.

In 2013, he planned to buy a van and travel around the world. When some pointed out how difficult this would be, he wrote: “This throws a spanner in the works, I was planning to attempt to travel to every continental (countries on the major continents/non-islands) country in the world (other than those in northern Africa ... though we will see when I get there).”

He wrote to his mother from New Zealand the following month, telling her of seeing Ozzy Osbourne and his band Black Sabbath and how he would be seeing Tool, another heavy rock band, the next day.

Tarrant reportedly authored a 74-page document called "The Great Replacement,” where he reportedly claimed that he viewed Trump as a "symbol of renewed white identity."

"Were/are you a supporter of Donald Trump?" he wrote. "As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no.”

In particular, the author said he was impacted by Turning Point USA's Candace Owens, a 29-year-old African-American political activist.

"[T]he person that has influenced me above all was Candace Owens. Each time she spoke I was stunned by her insights and her own views helped push me further and further into the belief of violence overmeekness. Though I will have to disavow some of her beliefs, thee xtreme actions she calls for are too much, even for my tastes," the document says.

In response, Owens tweeted that she threatened the media it should “lawyer the f*ck up” if she is blamed for inspiring the shooting.

[Opinion: Responding to the New Zealand mosque attack, Candace Owens shows her greatest problem]

The author also referenced English politician Sir Oswald Mosley as the historical figure he most associates with. Mosley headed the British Union of Fascists and later the Union Movement in England, both groups that disseminated anti-Semitic propaganda and wore Nazi-style uniforms and symbols.

Some recordings of Mosley’s speeches were included in an archived Facebook profile that is believed to belong to Tarrant. He claimed he communicated with right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, the mastermind behind two terrorist attacks in Norway that took the lives of 77 people.

The author said that Breivik’s own manifesto inspired him, similar to comments made by Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Hasson in a memo outlining his intent to murder innocent civilians. Hasson identified as a “white nationalist” and composed a hit list that included Democratic politicians and media figures.

The author said he had a “regular childhood" and had “little interest in education during my schooling, barely achieving a passing grade.”

He shared details about planning the attack, saying he wanted to “create an atmosphere of fear” and to “incite violence” against the Muslim community.

"I begun planning an attack roughly two years in advance and an attack at the location in Christchurch three months in advance,” he wrote in the document, which was published online hours before the shooting.

Tarrant was reportedly identified as the one responsible for livestreaming the shootings, which took the lives of 49 individuals. He notes in the video to “subscribe to PewDiePie” on YouTube. The YouTuber PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, said he was “absolutely sickened” that his name was referenced in the video.

Tarrant and three others are in custody, and police continue to investigate.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, offered condolences, saying that many victims were immigrants who had chosen to live in New Zealand.

“For those of you who are watching at home tonight, and questioning how this could have happened here, we — New Zealand — we were not a target because we are a safe harbor for those who hate,” she said. “We were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we are an enclave for extremism.”

“We were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things,” she said. “Because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it. And those values, I can assure you, will not, and cannot, be shaken by this attack.”