‘Hero’ who disarmed Bondi gunman recovering after surgery, family says

Video circulating on social media shows a bystander disarming one of the suspected shooters in the Sydney attack.

SYDNEY -- A Sydney resident who wrestled a gun from one of the alleged attackers during the mass shooting at Bondi Beach is recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family said.

Forty-three-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed was identified on social media as the bystander who hid behind parked cars before charging at the gunman from behind, seizing his rifle and knocking him to the ground.

Australian police on Monday said a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son carried out the attack at a Jewish celebration on Sunday afternoon, killing 15 people in the country’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.

“My son is a hero. He served in the police, he has the passion to defend people,” Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed, told state broadcaster ABC News in an interview.

He said that Ahmed is an Australian citizen and sells fruits and vegetables.

“When he saw people lying on the ground and the blood, quickly his conscience pushed him to attack one of the terrorists and take away his weapon,” Mohamed Fateh said.

Jozay Alkanji, Ahmed’s cousin, speaking while he was leaving the hospital in Sydney on Monday evening, said: “He’s done the first surgery. I think he’s got two or three surgeries, that depends on the doctor, what he says.”

Tributes have poured in from leaders both abroad and at home.

U.S. President Donald Trump called Ahmed “a very, very brave person” who saved many lives. Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state where Sydney is located, has hailed him “a genuine hero” and said the video was “the most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for Ahmed with just over A$1,000,000 (US$665,100) raised in a few hours. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was the largest donor, contributing A$99,999 and sharing the fundraiser on his X account.

Outside St George Hospital in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, where Ahmed is being treated, strangers came to show their support.

Misha and Veronica Pochuev came to the hospital with their seven-year-old daughter, Miroslava, to drop off flowers for Ahmed.

“My husband is Russian, my father is Jewish, my grandpa is Muslim. This is not only about Bondi, this is about every person,” Veronica said.

Miroslava held the bouquet with a note that read “To Ahmed: for courage and saved lives”.

Yomna Touni, 43, is raising money to help Ahmed’s recovery.

“He potentially saved many people yesterday, and that, for us, from an Islamic perspective, is to have saved all of mankind, you know,” Touni said.

“Killing one person is like killing all of mankind, and that’s what those terrorists did.”

Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Michael Perry and Saad Sayeed, Reuters