Ahmed al Ahmed, the man hailed as a hero for tackling one of the gunmen behind an antisemitic attack on Australia’s Bondi Beach earlier this month, is speaking out in the aftermath of the massacre.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News that aired Monday on “CBS Mornings,” al Ahmed said he “didn’t worry about anything” except for the lives he could potentially save as he sought to disarm 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.”
Al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner, has received international praise for disarming one of two gunmen accused of perpetrating the Dec. 14 mass shooting, which was Australia’s worst since 1996. Surveillance footage showed him leap out from behind a parked car along the beachfront and wrestle one assailant to the ground, successfully disarming him before al Ahmed became 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 of his struggle to remove the weapon from the gunman’s grasp. “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 added, “Everything in my heart, in my brain, everything, it’s worked just to manage to save the peoples’ life.”
The shooting happened at a Hanukkah celebration and intentionally targeted Sydney’s Jewish community, Australian and U.S. officials have said. Fifteen people died and another 40 were hospitalized with injuries.
Police identified the attackers as 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who was killed by officers at the scene, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram.
A GoFundMe online fundraiser has collected nearly $2 million in donations to aid al Ahmed.
Watch an extended version of the interview here.