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Heroic man bravely disarmed Australian mass shooter; watch video

December 15, 2025 | | Print Article

A holiday marred by terrorism was not without a contrasting moment of heroism as reactions to a Hanukkah attack in Australia found a bright spot in a rare act of “true courage.”

(Video Credit: 7NEWS)

Sunday evening at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, celebrants gathering to mark the first night of the festival commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem became the latest victims of suspected terrorism. As the alleged attackers, said to be a father and son duo from Pakistan, fatally shot at least 16 people and hospitalized some 40 more, a local shop owner and father of two was heralded as a hero for his efforts to intervene.

“He’s a lot worse than expected. When you think of a bullet in the arm, you don’t think of serious injuries, but he has lost a lot of blood,” said 43-year-old Ahmed el Ahmed’s attorney, Sam Issa, to the Sydney Morning Herald, as the bystander had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the shoulder and arm.

The video captured Ahmed approaching one of the gunmen from between parked cars before wrestling the firearm away from the man. He was then seen aiming the weapon at the attacker, who casually walked away while shots from his accomplice continued to ring out.

“This is one of the most heroic acts I’ve seen in my life,” wrote Matt Van Swol on X amid social media’s outpouring of praise for the man. “It’s so rare to see true courage; this is it.”

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Issa, who represented Ahmed in attaining Australian citizenship, told the Herald, “Ahmed’s a humble man, he’s not interested in coverage, he just did what he was compelled to do as a human being on that day. He gets that gratitude from being in Australia. This is his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship.”

Adding to the account of bravery, Jozay Alkanj, Ahmed’s cousin, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the heroic bystander expressed, “I’m going to die, please see my family and tell them that I went down to save people’s lives.”

This was said to have happened moments after they had considered joining the celebrants at the annual “Chanukah By The Sea” gathering, who’d offered them food when they had passed by before the attack.

Detailing his own efforts to intervene, Jacob Barnfield told 7NEWS, “I was trying to get closer to [the attacker], just to try and disarm him. But the closer you got to the shooters, the more bodies you saw on the floor. Just body parts on the floor, next to the bodies.”

He was said to have stomped on the head of one of the alleged attackers as police were restraining them, “People were just stomping on his head. I got a pretty good shot on his head as well, but I feel like it was pretty well deserved considering the circumstances.”

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“You don’t think about how dangerous it is when you’re running past kids bleeding out, families covering their children, and people with organs exposed. It’s just fight or flight,” Barnfield told the Daily Mail as he contended the scene was unexpected in Australia, but something he’d expect in the United States.

While a crowdfunding campaign for Ahmed raised over $1 million at the time of this post, a Monday press conference provided some details about the attackers, said to be 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram.

“There was very little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities,” explained New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon. Concerning the elder Akram, said to have been fatally wounded as he was neutralized, the commissioner detailed that the man had been issued a hunting license and owned six legally registered firearms. “The person was determined to be entitled to have a firearms license and … the person had a firearms license for a number of years for which there were no incidents.”

While the ages of the victims were said to range from 87-years-0ld to the fatality of a 10-year-old girl, authorities also indicated that two improvised explosive devices were said to have been found at one of the two properties investigated under a search warrant, in addition to evidence of IEDs in a vehicle near the attack.

Kevin Haggerty
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