Ahmed al-Ahmed, the 44-year-old father who tackled and disarmed an alleged shooter at Bondi Beach, acted out of a sense of conscience and could not bear to see people dying, his family have revealed. Al-Ahmed remains in a critical but stable condition at St George Hospital in Sydney after being shot four to five times during the altercation.
Since the attack, al-Ahmed has been hailed as a hero by the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, the New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns, and the US President. A GoFundMe page set up in his honour has raised more than A$1.3m (£645,000) in less than 24 hours. Al-Ahmed's cousin, Mustafa al-Asaad, said his intervention was a humanitarian act and a matter of conscience.
Al-Ahmed's parents, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmed and Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmed, told ABC News that their son had been having coffee with a friend in Bondi when he heard shots ring out. They said he would have done anything to protect anyone, regardless of their background. 'He doesn't discriminate between one nationality and another,' his father said. 'Especially here in Australia, there's no difference between one citizen and another.'
Al-Ahmed, an Australian citizen of Syrian origin from Idlib, had served in the police before moving to Australia in 2006. His parents had only arrived from Syria a few months ago. His mother said she was 'beating myself up and crying' when she received the call that her son had been shot. Al-Ahmed told his cousin that 'God gave me courage' and that he did not regret his actions.
Lubaba Alhmidi AlKahil, media director for the Australians for Syria Association, visited al-Ahmed in hospital and described him as a 'superhero'. She said the Syrian community in Australia was very proud of him. Al-Ahmed is recovering from his first surgery and faces two more operations, his cousin said.
