Expand / Collapse search
☰

Bystander who disarmed Bondi Beach gunman hailed as hero

By
Published  December 15, 2025 1:11pm CST
World
FOX Local
article

(The Premier of New South Wales visited Ahmed el Ahmed — the man who tackled one of the Bondi Beach attackers — as he underwent treatment in hospital on Monday, December 15. (Credit: Chris Minns via Storyful))

The Brief

    • Video shows bystander Ahmed el Ahmed disarming a gunman during the deadly antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach.
    • Ahmed was wounded and later visited in the hospital by the New South Wales premier, who called him a hero.
    • The father-and-son attack killed 15 people and is Australia’s deadliest shooting in nearly 30 years.

SYDNEY - A bystander captured in a widely shared video disarming a gunman during a deadly shooting at a popular Australian beach is being praised as a hero who saved lives.

Dig deeper:

The man has been identified as Ahmed el Ahmed. 

Recently, the Premier of New South Wales visited him in the hospital. 

RELATED: Bondi Beach shooting: Terror attack at Australia Hanukkah event kills at least 15

An image was published by Chris Minns, who said that Ahmed was "a real-life hero."

Ahmed was later wounded in the gunfire, according to 9News.

Bondi Beach shooting: What we know about attack

Bondi Beach shooting: What we know about attack

LiveNOW's Christy Matino breaks down the latest details of the Australia Bondi Beach attack with the FDD's Ben Cohen.

The backstory:

Video footage posted to social media shows a passerby dressed in a white T-shirt and dark pants crouching behind a parked car before sneaking up behind a gunman, grabbing him and wrestling away his firearm. The bystander then points the weapon at the gunman, who falls to the ground.

Father and son gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing 15 people and wounded dozens of others. The attack is being called an act of antisemitic terrorism.

The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular and iconic beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those episodes and Sunday’s shooting were connected. It is the deadliest shooting in almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws.

The 50-year-old father, who was killed, arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, authorities said, and was an Australian resident when he died. Officials wouldn’t confirm what country he had migrated from.

His 24-year-old Australian-born son, who was shot and wounded, is being treated at a hospital. 

The Source: Storyful and the Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles. 

WorldCrime and Public Safety