{"id":377442,"date":"2025-12-29T04:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377442\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T04:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:34:10","slug":"ahmed-al-ahmed-recounts-how-he-disarmed-one-of-the-gunmen-in-bondi-beach-terrorist-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377442\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahmed Al Ahmed recounts how he disarmed one of the gunmen in Bondi Beach terrorist attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man deemed a “hero” after risking his life to save “countless others” during the Bondi Beach terrorist attack has spoken of his determination to protect the innocent.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Al Ahmed went viral after footage showed him sneaking up behind one of the two gunmen and wrestling a long-barrelled gun away from him.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBS News in the US on Monday, Mr Al Ahmed reflected on the ordeal, in which he suffered multiple gunshots.<\/p>\n

“I jumped onto his back and hit him \u2026 ‘Drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing,'” he recalled saying to the gunman he disarmed.<\/p>\n

“No, I didn’t worry about anything \u2026 my target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being.<\/p>\n

“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 see blood, I don’t want to hear his gun, I don’t want to see people screaming.”<\/p>\n

“My soul asked me to do that,” he said of his decision to intervene.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Father-of-two Mr Al Ahmed was filmed tackling one of the shooters and disarming him. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Fifteen people were killed during the December 14 shooting that targeted Jewish people at a Hanukkah celebration called Chanukah by the Sea at Archer Park.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old father-of-two’s selfless actions are thought to have saved “countless lives”.<\/p>\n

“I know I saved lots of people \u2026 innocent kids, and women \u2026 I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry still for the lost,” Mr Al Ahmed said.<\/p>\n

‘Real-life hero’ on the road to recovery<\/p>\n

For the past fortnight, Mr Al Ahmed has been undergoing surgeries at St George Hospital.<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese visited Mr Al Ahmed in hospital a few days after the attack. (Supplied: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet)<\/p>\n

Mr Al Ahmed’s parents previously told the ABC he was shot four to five times in his shoulder.<\/p>\n

“He saw they were dying, and people were losing their lives, and when that guy [the shooter] ran out of ammo, he took it from him, but he was hit,” Mr Al Ahmed’s mother said.<\/p>\n

“When he did what he did, he wasn’t thinking about the background of the people he’s saving, the people dying in the street,” Mr Al Ahmed’s father said.<\/p>\n

Relatives and locals back in his small Syrian hometown of Al Nayrab, which Mr Al Ahmed left in the mid-2000s to start a new life in Australia, have also expressed their pride<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Ahmed is a brave and honourable young man. He cannot tolerate injustice or corruption. He rejects wrongdoing and meanness,” his uncle Wahid Al Ahmed previously told the ABC.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr and Ms Al Ahmed called their son a hero for disarming one of the Bondi gunmen. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

More than 43,000 people around the world donated more than $2.5 million to a fundraising campaign set up to thank him for his actions.<\/p>\n

The day after the attack, NSW Premier Chris Minns paid Mr Al Ahmed a visit.<\/p>\n

He posted a photo on social media and called him a “real-life hero”.<\/p>\n

“His incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk,” Mr Minns said.<\/p>\n

The following day, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also visited Mr Al Ahmed.<\/p>\n

“He decided to take action and his bravery is an inspiration for all Australians,” Mr Albanese said to journalists after he left the hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man deemed a “hero” after risking his life to save “countless others” during the Bondi Beach terrorist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[203412,192964,203414,203415,25653,27931,89600,203413,12491,192151,43,38324,9904,44,4905,2174,1369,122461,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-377442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ahmed","tag-ahmed-al-ahmed","tag-ahmed-al-ahmed-interview","tag-ahmed-al-ahmed-speaks","tag-attack","tag-bondi","tag-cbs-news","tag-disarmed","tag-gunman","tag-hanukkah","tag-headlines","tag-hero","tag-jewish","tag-news","tag-shooting","tag-shot","tag-surgery","tag-terrorist","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}