Bondi attack hero thought that he was going to die

A fruit shop owner who tackled one of the Bondi Beach gunmen told his cousin to tell his family he “went down to save people’s lives” before he stepped in to act.

- DAN HAYGARTH

Ahmed al-Ahmed, a father of two from Sydney, was seen tackling one of the gunmen before wrestling his weapon away from him during an antisemitic terrorist attack at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration in Sydney on Sunday.

Video footage of Mr Ahmed intervening circulated widely on social media following the attack.

He was at the beach with his cousin Jozay Alkanj, who told the Sydney Morning Herald that Mr Ahmed asked him to pass a message to his family before he acted.

Mr Alkanj said Mr Ahmed, 45, told him: “I’m going to die – please see my family [and tell them] that I went down to save people’s lives.”

Mr Ahmed’s family previously said he was in hospital with bullet wounds to his arm and hand, but was in “good spirits”.

His father said his actions showed his son’s impulse to protect people as he called him a “hero of Australia”.

Speaking to ABC Australia through a translator, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmed said: “His friend told him, ‘Let’s go have coffee at Bondi.’