The 43-year-old met with New South Wales Premier Chris Minns on Monday, who praised him as a “real-life hero” whose “incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk.”
Ahmed, a father of two girls, was shot several times in the shoulder, his parents said, according to ABC.
A man seen running toward one of the Bondi shooters in footage on social media has been identified by his lawyer as a Middle Eastern refugee and father of two.
Lawyer Alison Battisson told CNN that her client, who lacks permanent legal status in Australia, hid behind a tree with a detective and waited for the shooter to reload. After the attacker was struck by police fire, he ran towards the shooter and kicked away his gun.
She declined to give her client’s name but identified him as “AB”.
Footage circulating on social media showed Naveed Akram, the younger of the two shooters, firing repeatedly from a bridge and then dropping to the ground after being struck.
AB, dressed in black, can then be seen approaching the downed shooter with his hands raised.
“He ran towards the shooting, yelling for help,” Battisson, Director Principal for Human Rights for All and Heretic Law, told CNN after speaking with her client.
“The government won’t give him a permanent visa. He has no right to stay here, yet he still ran forward to assist the Australian community.”
AB, whose pregnant wife and two children are Australian citizens, sprang into action when he arrived at Bondi Beach by taxi and heard gunshots erupt, Battisson said.
“He comes from a country where you know when there is gunfire,” Battisson said. “He just knew he needed to run towards it to help stop it.”
AB approached the shooter on the bridge and took cover behind a pine tree with a detective, Battisson said.
“He worked his way to the stairs and when the shooter went down, he ran up the stairs,” she added. “The shooter was still holding his gun and he kicked the gun away.”
Approaching the gunman, AB stepped into the line of police fire, according to Battisson who said it was not clear if the officers “knew the shooter was properly down.”
“He kicked the gun away and it got a bit confusing as people thought he was the shooter so the police shot at him,” Battisson said.“Then the detective ran up and said ‘no, he’s with me.’”
The father and son duo suspected to have carried out the massacre at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in which 15 people were killed have been named by Australian media as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram.
Public broadcaster ABC as well as 9News and 7News – both CNN affiliates – named the two Akrams, citing sources, as did the Sydney Morning Herald.
New South Wales police declined to comment.
Separately, an imam who provided Quran lessons to Naveed Akram at Sydney’s Al Murad Institute told CNN he was able to identify the younger shooter from video of the attack as the man he had taught.
Sheikh Adam Ismail said in statement that Akram had approached the center for lessons in 2019 seeking Quran recitation and Arabic language classes. He continued his lessons for a year.
“I condemn this act of violence without any hesitation,” said Ismail in a video message. “What I find deeply ironic is that the very Quran he was learning to recite clearly states that taking one innocent life is like killing all of humanity. This makes it clear that what unfolded yesterday at (Bondi) is completely forbidden in Islam.”
“Not everyone who recites the Quran understands it or lives by its teachings, and sadly, this appears to be the case here,” he said.
Ismail said he produced a video message to clarify his relationship with Naveed Akram after a photograph was circulated of them together from the Al Murad Institute in 2022.
Australian authorities have yet to formally name the Akrams but they have given details about the two suspects in multiple briefings to the media.
The younger man was born in Australia while his father, who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police at the scene, had immigrated to the country in 1998, Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said on Monday.
Raids were conducted at properties linked to the pair on Monday, including a short-term rental address in the southwest suburb of Campsie which is believed to have been where the pair stayed in the lead up to the attack. Two firearms and several suitcases were taken from the property by police on Monday afternoon, according to CNN affiliate 9News.
The 24-year-old is currently in hospital and is likely to face criminal charges linked to the shooting, police said on Monday.
He had previously come to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) which spent six months assessing his links to other people on their radar in 2019.
“The assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a news conference on Monday.
Naveed’s father Sajid Akram had arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa and later transferred to a partner visa in 2001.
In the years since then, he had taken just three trips overseas, returning on a resident return visa each time, said Burke. Police have yet to officially name the pair and officials would not confirm Sajid Akram’s country of origin.
He had held a firearms license for about 10 years, according to police, who seized six guns he owned following the attacks.
“The father has held a firearms license since 2015. We are very much working through the background of both persons” said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon. But he added that police “know very little about them.”
“He met the eligibility criteria for a firearms license” and held a “recreational hunting license,” Lanyon said
There are two types of hunting licenses, Lanyon said: the ability to hunt on a property or also as part of a hunting club — or “gun club” — which is the type of license the suspect held.
A property connected to the men in the southwest suburb of Bonnyrigg, was also swarmed by police following the attack.
Residents living nearby described CNN scenes of chaos and fear as officers swarmed their normally quiet street.
Renato Padilla, who has been living in Bonnyrigg for more than 25 years, said the street quickly filled with police vehicles as authorities launched a raid on a nearby house believed to be connected to the attack.