Bondi Beach hero breaks his silence and shares sad update
The 43-year-old father of two, who courageously tackled one of the gunmen during Sunday’s horrific Hanukkah mass shooting at Bondi Beach, is currently recovering in a Sydney hospital after being shot five times.
Jaw-dropping footage circulated online shows him creeping behind parked cars along Campbell Parade before ambushing gunman Sajid Akram from behind, wrestling the rifle from his hands, and pointing it away without firing.
The Syrian-born Ahmed’s life-saving actions drawn global admiration, but the pain and trauma are starting to take a heavy toll. Initial reports stated he had been shot twice, but new details have now emerged.
Al-Ahmed’s injuries are severe
Al-Ahmed’s injuries are far more serious than initially reported. He was shot in the shoulder, arm, and hand and has undergone multiple surgeries, with at least one bullet still lodged in his back.
“At this stage, he says he has no feeling in his arm,” his former migration lawyer Sam Issa told the Daily Mail.
“I’m no medical doctor, but he said to me that it seems like one of the bullets may have hit a nerve. The pain has started to take a toll on him. He’s not well at all. He’s riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment.”
There are growing fears he could lose his arm due to nerve damage. Yet from his hospital bed, Al-Ahmed sent a message of faith and hope:
“Through Allah, I went through a very difficult phase, only Allah knows it. I ask my mother, the apple of my eye, to pray for me. Pray for me, my mother. God willing, it will be a minor injury,” he told TRT World in Arabic.
A hero’s courage
Before confronting the gunman, Al-Ahmed warned his cousin of the danger:
“He said: ‘I’m going to die – please see my family and tell them that I went down to save people’s lives,’” Jozay Alkanj told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Al-Ahmed’s father, Muhammad Fateh al-Ahmed, highlighted his son’s lifelong instinct to protect others: “My son is a hero. He served with the police and in the central security forces, and he has the impulse to protect people.”
His mother, Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmed, was overwhelmed upon realizing her son was the man in the viral video:
