‘Jumped On His Back, Hit Him…’: Bondi Beach Hero Narrates How He Disarmed Sydney Shooter

Ahmed al Ahmed, a tobacco shop owner, won praise for his heroic efforts to disarm a gunman at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. (AFP)

Ahmed al-Ahmed, the tobacco shop owner who was widely praised as a hero for his efforts in disarming one of the two shooters during the heinous terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14 that killed 15 people, said he wanted to prevent the deaths of innocent people and did not worry about anything while doing so.

Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim, leapt into action and tackled a longarm rifle from Sajid Akram, 50, who was firing indiscriminately at Jewish families during the attack. Ahmed managed to disarm the shooter successfully before he was injured himself. His actions were praised by locals, international politicians and celebrities.

“My target was just to take the gun from him, and to stop him from killing a human being’s life and not killing innocent people. I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry for the lost,” he told CBS News.

Narrating how he disarmed the gunman, Ahmed said, “I jumped in his back, hit him. I hold him with my right hand and start saying a word, you know, like to warn him, drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing, and it’s come all in fast.”

‘I Don’t Want To See People Killed’

“And emotionally, I’m doing something, which is I feel something, a power in my body, my brain … I don’t want to see people killed in front of me, I don’t want to hear his gun, I don’t want to see people screaming and begging, asking for help, and that’s my soul asking me to do that,” he added.

Ahmed sustained about five bullet wounds across his left arm, and one lodged in the back of his left shoulder blade while trying to save people. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns also visited Ahmed at the hospital. Albanese described Ahmed as a “true Australian hero”.

“Everything in my heart, in my brain, everything, it’s worked just to manage to save the peoples’ life,” he told CBS News.

At least 15 people died during what was Australia’s deadliest mass shooting since 1996, when armed gunmen targeted the celebrations of the Jewish Hanukkah festival. The gunmen were identified as Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveen, 24.

Sajid Akram was shot dead by police while Naveed was hospitalised and charged with 59 offences including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, Ahmed was presented with a cheque at his hospital bedside for A$2.5 million ($1.7 million), which had been raised from tens of thousands of community members moved by his actions, BBC reported. Originally from war-torn Syria, he first arrived in Australia in 2006 and is the owner of Cigara, a tobacco shop in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland. Initial reports mistakenly identified Ahmed as a fruit shop owner.