Video circulating on social media Sunday shows an unarmed man, Ahmed El Ahmad, taking down one of the suspected gunmen allegedly involved in a mass shooting targeting the Jewish community in Bondi Beach, Australia.
At least two gunmen opened fire Sunday on a Hanukkah celebration, killing 12 people and wounding 29, including a child and two police officers, the BBC reported. The video recorded by an eyewitness and aired on 7 News, shows the man tackling one gunman and wrenching away what appears to be a rifle or shotgun from the suspect.
“Here’s the vision of one of the gunmen being tackled, I believe by a hero, a civilian — not a police officer, not a paramedic, but a civilian — who has rushed the gunman from behind, seized his weapon, turned the weapon on him, and has had the courage to not only do that, but the presence of mind not to open fire,” the anchor said as he narrated the video.
Video later shows the hero setting the suspected gunman’s weapon down and throwing an object at the disarmed individual while another suspected gunman apparently fired at the heroic civilian from a nearby bridge.
One gunman is confirmed dead, while the other in serious condition after police stopped the attack, according to the BBC. Police also found improvised explosive devices at the scene, the outlet reported.
Australia passed legislation requiring owners of semi-automatic and certain pump-action firearms to surrender them in a mandatory “buyback” in the wake of a 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris praised that legislation following a 2023 mass shooting in Maine.
