Bondi Beach shooting hero Ahmed al Ahmed recalled the moment he ran towards one of the attackers and wrestled the gun from him, saying in an interview published Monday with a US outlet he wanted to protect \u201cinnocent people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event on Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people and wounding dozens in what authorities have described as an anti-Semitic terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
Despite the tragedy, tales of heroism emerged of those who tried to stop the two gunmen during their deadly rampage.<\/p>\n
Among them was Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit seller, who went viral for ducking between parked cars as the shooting unfolded and then wresting a gun from one of the assailants.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy target was just to take the gun from him, and to stop him from killing a human being\u2019s life and not killing innocent people,\u201d he told CBS News in an interview that airs on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I saved lots, but I feel sorry for the lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahmed was shot several times in the shoulder after tussling with one of the gunmen and underwent several rounds of surgery.<\/p>\n
He recalled the moment he \u201cjumped\u201d on the gunman\u2019s back, holding him with his right hand and said: \u201cDrop your gun, stop doing what you\u2019re doing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to see people killed in front of me, I don\u2019t want to see blood, I don\u2019t want to hear his gun, I don\u2019t want to see people screaming and begging, asking for help,\u201d Ahmed told the television network.<\/p>\n
Ahmed was at the beach getting a cup of coffee when the shooting occurred.<\/p>\n
The father of two emigrated to Australia from Syria in 2007; his uncle Mohammed, a farmer, had told AFP in Ahmed\u2019s hometown of Al-Nayrab days after the shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis act is a source of pride for us and for Syria,\u201d Mohammed said.<\/p>\n
The Australian government has fast-tracked and granted a number of visas for Ahmed\u2019s family, local media reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cAhmed has shown the courage and values we want in Australia,\u201d Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement.<\/p>\n
One of the gunmen, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.<\/p>\n
His 24-year-old son, Naveed, an Australian-born citizen, remains in custody on charges including terrorism and 15 murders, as well as committing a \u201cterrorist act\u201d and planting a bomb with intent to harm. He has yet to enter a plea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bondi Beach shooting hero Ahmed al Ahmed recalled the moment he ran towards one of the attackers and wrestled the gun from him, saying in an interview published Monday with a US outlet he wanted to protect \u201cinnocent people\u201d. Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event on Sydney\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14707,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14705\/revisions\/14707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}