‘I Couldn't Handle the Screaming’: Bondi Beach Hero Gives First Interview, Reveals His One Regret

The man who risked his own life to disarm one of the two Islamic State-loving terrorists shooting at Jews celebrating the first night of Chanukah at Australia's famed Bondi Beach has given his first interview after being released from the hospital. 

Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who operates a shop near where the massacre took place, told CBS News that the he didn't hesitate to act on December 14, thinking only of the lives he could save, saying, “I couldn't handle it to hear kids and the woman and oldest and man screaming and asking for help and no one help.”

The amazing, yet perilous, moment al Ahmed snuck up behind one of the shooters (possibly the now-deceased Sajid Akram, aged 50) taking aim at Jews participating in a "Chanukah by the Sea" celebration was caught on video. The world cheered his actions, which took on outsized importance after reports surfaced that local police were slow to respond to the horror.

WATCH: Heroic bystander tackles suspected shooter during deadly terror attack on Hanukkah celebration at Australia's Bondi Beach. pic.twitter.com/sxwWGorN63

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 14, 2025

Of that moment, the hero revealed, "My soul and all my everything in my organ, in my body, in my brain, asked me to go, and to defend and to save innocent life. I didn't think about it." He also shared his recollection of the moment he disarmed the terrorist:

"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."

“I couldn't handle it to hear kids and the woman and oldest and man screaming and asking for help and no one help”: In an exclusive interview, Ahmed al Ahmed, the brave hero who saved lives in the deadly terror attack at a Hanukkah festival in Sydney, Australia, told @amcoren he… pic.twitter.com/Ia5n49TqzB

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) December 29, 2025

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