WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Like many Australians who walk Bondi Beach on long, hot summer evenings, Ahmed al Ahmed just wanted a cup of coffee with a friend. Around him, a bloody massacre erupted as two gunmen targeted Jews during Hanukkah festivities in a waterfront park.
Soon, al Ahmed had crawled, bent over, between two parked cars before heading straight for one of the unsuspecting shooters. In the footage, which has been viewed millions of times worldwide, the 44-year-old father can be seen tackling one of the gunmen, wresting the man’s rifle from his hand and turning it on the attacker.
The story of the Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner who ended the rampage of one of the gunmen on Sunday has gripped a country desperate for solace after one of its darkest hours: the killing of 15 people while celebrating their Jewish faith.
Millions raised for Bondi hero
“At a time when we have seen evil done, he shines as an example of the strength of humanity,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday as he left a Sydney hospital where al Ahmed is being treated for gunshot wounds. “We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country.”
A fundraising page set up by Australians who have never met Al Ahmed attracted donations from about 40,000 people on Tuesday night, who gave A$2.3 million ($1.5 million). Backers included billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman, who pledged $99,000.
The father of two faces a long recovery
Al Ahmed, who is married with two young daughters, faces a long battle ahead, say those who have spoken to him since Sunday’s massacre. He was shot multiple times in the left arm, apparently by the second gunman in the attack, as the man fired indiscriminately from a bridge.
He has already undergone surgery and more operations are scheduled, said Lubaba alhmidi Alkahil, a spokesman for the Australians for Syria Association, who visited al Ahmed in a hospital on Monday night. The “quiet and humble” man was conscious but frail and faced at least six months of recovery, Alkahil said.
A prime minister and a president are fans
In the days after the attack, a pile of floral tributes and thank-you notes grew outside the small tobacco shop that al Ahmed owns opposite a train station in suburban Sydney. Meanwhile, he received hospital visits from Australia’s leaders, apparently telling New South Wales Premier Chris Minns he would take the same step again.
He has been hailed as a hero by world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Australia’s governor-general, who is Britain’s King Charles’ representative in the country. Minns said al Ahmed had saved “countless” lives in what the prime minister said was “the most incredible scene I have ever seen”.
Al Ahmed was once a police officer
Al Ahmed lived in the city of Nayrab in Syria’s Idlib region before coming to Australia, his cousin Mohammad al Ahmed told The Associated Press. He left Syria in 2006 after completing his studies before mass protests in 2011 against the government of then-President Bashar Assad, which were met with brutal repression and turned into a nearly 14-year civil war.
Nayrab was heavily bombed by Assad’s forces, with most of the town’s houses flattened and reduced to rubble. On Tuesday, al Ahmed was the talk of the town.
“Ahmed did a heroic job,” his cousin, Mohammad al Ahmed, told The Associated Press. “Without any hesitation, he tackled the terrorist and disarmed him just to save innocent people.”
Ahmed al Ahmed’s parents, who came to Sydney this year to be reunited with their son, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that their son served in the police and central security forces in Syria. Father Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said his son’s “conscience and soul” compelled him to act on Sunday.
“I feel proud and honored because my son is a hero of Australia,” the father said.
The story of heroism gives hope in the midst of tragedy
In the wake of the mass killing, a country reeling from one of the worst hate-fueled attacks ever on its soil – allegedly by an Australian resident who arrived from India in 1998 and his Australian-born son – looked for hope amid their grief. Stories of heroism began to emerge.
They included the story of a married couple, Boris and Sofia Gurman, who were both killed as they tried to stop one of the shooters as he got out of his car and began the massacre, their family told Australian news media.
Reuven Morrison, 62, was also killed while trying to stop the horror, according to his daughter, Sheina Gutnick. After Al Ahmed wrestled a gunman’s gun, a person Gutnick identified as Morrison is seen throwing objects at the gunman — before he was shot by the second man.
Acts of bravery like these have been cited by many on social media and in news outlets as examples of what being Australian should mean.
“When he did what he did, he didn’t think at all about the past of the people he was saving, the people dying in the streets,” Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said of his son. “He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another, especially here in Australia, there is no difference between one citizen and another.”
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Associated Press writers Abdelrahman Shaheen reported from Damascus, Syria and Abdulmajeed Darweesh from Nayrab, Syria.