Syrian-born Australian who tackled Bondi gunman hailed as hero

By AMELIA NIERENBERG and YAN ZHUANG

Ahmed al Ahmed crouched behind a car in a Sydney parking lot Sunday, feet away from one of the two gunmen who had just turned a beachside Hanukkah celebration into a massacre.

Then, sirens wailing in the background, al Ahmed jumped into action.

Even as the gunman fired a shot in a different direction, al Ahmed ran toward the assailant and pounced on him from behind. The two men tussled for several seconds before al Ahmed wrested a long firearm from the man, who fell to the ground. As al Ahmed pointed the weapon at him, the assailant got up and stumbled away.

Al Ahmed — whose actions were caught on a video that has been verified by The New York Times and who was identified Monday by Australian officials — is being praised as a hero in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Australian history.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting, which left the country and its Jewish community reeling, al Ahmed’s bravery provided much-needed solace.

Al Ahmed, a Syrian-born fruit seller, risked his life and likely prevented the massacre from being even worse, officials said.

“At the best of times, what we see is Australians coming together,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday at a news conference, referring to the risks that al Ahmed took, adding that he had been hospitalized with a “serious injury.” It was not immediately clear how he had been hurt.

Footage of al Ahmed’s intervention was shared widely across social media and even made its way into the White House, where President Donald Trump called al Ahmed “a very, very brave person.”

Al Ahmed is an Australian citizen who immigrated from Syria in 2006 and has two daughters, ages 3 and 6, his parents told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. He had been drinking coffee with a friend near the beach when he heard gunshots, they added.

“He wasn’t thinking about the background of the people he’s saving, the people dying in the street,” al Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed, told the network. “He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another.”

Chris Minns, premier of the state of New South Wales who visited al Ahmed in the hospital, said he had “saved countless lives.” In a picture that Minns posted on social media, al Ahmed looks alert and appears to be partially upright and speaking.

A GoFundMe page that was set up to support al Ahmed has raised more than 1.4 million Australian dollars, or about $930,000 — including roughly $66,500 from billionaire investor Bill Ackman, according to the fundraising company.

GoFundMe said in an email that it was working with the organizers of the page to “help ensure funds raised safely reach Ahmed and his family.”

At St. George Hospital, where al Ahmed was being treated, Talia Gill and her 10-year-old daughter, Georgie, said in an interview that they were leaving gifts and a letter for him. The attack struck close to home for Gill, who is Jewish and who had friends who were in Bondi when the shooting occurred.

Georgie said she wanted to tell him: “Thank you so much for saving all those people you didn’t even know.” She added, “You’re probably the kindest person ever.”