‘I Didn’t Think About It’: Hero Reveals Why He Tackled Bondi Beach Terrorist

The man who attacked one of two terrorists carrying out an ISIS-inspired attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach told CBS News he never thought about shooting the attacker in an interview broadcast Monday.

Two Pakistani migrants opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on December 14 in an attack inspired by the radical Islamic terrorist group called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, killing at least 15 people and injuring 40 others, with one gunman killed on the spot by police. Ahmed al-Ahmed, who was filmed snatching his gun from one of the terrorists, told CBS News that he “didn’t think” when he acted. (RELATED: Bondi Beach survivor says cops stopped her from fighting back against terrorists)

“My soul and everything I have in my organs, in my body, in my brain, asked me to go there, to defend and save innocent lives,” said al-Ahmed, a convenience store owner. “I didn’t think about it.”

WATCH:

A video posted to YouTube by 7 News shows Ahmed shooting dead one of the gunmen suspected of being involved in a mass shooting targeting the Jewish community, then shows him putting down the unarmed gunman’s gun and throwing an object at the unarmed terrorist while the second terrorist involved in the attack apparently shot al-Ahmed, who was shot twice.

“I didn’t think about shooting and I don’t want to put my hand in blood. I don’t think I’m the one who can take people’s lives,” al-Ahmed told CBS News.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans for mass gun confiscation on December 19 in response to the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, which could include a limit on the number of firearms a person can own, restricting firearms licenses to Australian citizens and “additional reliance on criminal intelligence” to determine whether a firearms possession license should be granted.

Australia passed a law requiring owners of semi-automatic and certain pump-action firearms to surrender them to the government as part of a mandatory “buyback” following a 1996 mass shooting that killed 35 people. Many Democrats cited the rapid enactment of a sweeping gun ban as a model response to mass shootings, particularly when it came to so-called “assault weapons.”

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