‘My soul asked me to do that’: Bondi Beach hero recalls how he tackled gunman

Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who bravely intervened when two gunmen opened fire at the crowd on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on December 14, tackling one of the attackers. The terror attack, which targeted the Jewish community in a shooting on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, killed 15 and injured dozens of others. Speaking of the incident and his courageous act, al Ahmed said that he wanted to stop the attacker from killing innocent people.

In an interview with CBS News, al Ahmed said that he “didn’t worry about anything” other than the lives he could potentially save as he disarmed the shooter.

“My target was just to take the gun from him, and to stop him from killing a human being’s life and not killing innocent people,” he recalled. “I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry for the lost.”

The Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner has received praise for his act from all across the world. His split-second decision to tackle the attacker was caught on surveillance footage, which showed him jumping out from behind a parked car and shoving him down to the ground, successfully disarming him. However, while doing so, the “Bondi Beach hero” was wounded himself.

“I jumped in his back, hit him. I hold him with my right hand and start saying a word, you know, like to warn him, drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing, and it’s come all in fast,” al Ahmed said. “And emotionally, I’m doing something, which is I feel something, a power in my body, my brain ... I don’t want to see people killed in front of me, I don’t want to hear his gun, I don’t want to see people screaming and begging, asking for help, and that’s my soul asking me to do that.”

He further added, “Everything in my heart, in my brain, everything, it’s worked just to manage to save the people’s lives.”