Ahmed al Ahmed — the man praised for confronting one of the gunmen during an antisemitic attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach earlier this month — is speaking publicly for the first time about the split-second decision he says was guided by instinct.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News airing Monday on CBS Mornings, al Ahmed said he moved without hesitation as gunfire erupted during a Hanukkah celebration on Dec. 14.
“I didn’t worry about anything,” he said. “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.”
Asked what was going through his mind, al Ahmed told CBS News’ Foreign Correspondent Anna Coren that he couldn’t bear the sound of people screaming for help — including “kids and women and [the elderly]” — while seeing “no one help.”
“My soul and everything in my organ and my brain asked me to go on defense and to save innocent life,” he said, recalling that there were “hundreds and hundreds of people all on the ground” around him. “I didn’t think about it.”
He described the moment as something physical and immediate. “Emotionally, I’m doing something,” he said. “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.”
“That’s my soul asking me to do that,” he added. “That’s my soul asking me to do that and everything in my heart and my brain, everything. It worked to manage and to save the people’s [lives].”
Fifteen people were killed in the Dec. 14 shooting, and another 41 were hospitalized with injuries, according to officials.
Police identified the attackers as Sajid Akram, 50, who was killed by officers at the scene, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who has since been charged with 59 offenses, including committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of causing wounding/grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder.
Al Ahmed — a Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner — was shot five times. He was released from the hospital on Sunday, Dec. 28, but still has two bullets lodged in his shoulder and nerve damage to his hand that doctors say may never fully recover. Over $2.6 million has since been raised for him on GoFundMe.
Investigators say the attack deliberately targeted Sydney’s Jewish community, and al Ahmed has been widely praised for disarming one of the two gunmen.
Surveillance footage from the beachfront showed al Ahmed emerging from behind a parked car and wrestling one of the attackers to the ground, managing to take away his weapon before he himself was wounded.
“I jumped on his back, hit him,” al Ahmed recalled. “I hold him with my right hand and start saying a word — to warn him — drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing. And it all came fast.”
Did he consider firing the weapon after he took it? Al Ahmed said no.
“I take the gun from him, of course. But I didn’t think to shoot,” he said. “I didn’t want to put my hand in blood. I don’t think I can take life of people.”
He also said he wasn’t thinking about the second gunman. “My target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being’s life,” al Ahmed said.
Despite believing his actions prevented further loss of life, he said the grief of what happened remains heavy.
“I know I saved lots of people’s life, but I feel sorry for the lost,” he said.
“I risked my life for innocent human beings,” he added. “I can’t call them strangers because they are human being like me, like you.”
