SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) – While a Sydney shopowner is being hailed as a hero after disarming one of the gunmen shooting at a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, a couple and another man who died after physically confronting the attackers are also being remembered for their heroic efforts to save those around them.
Reuven Morrison, 62, was shot dead after trying to halt the bloodshed, his daughter Sheina Gutnick told American broadcaster CBS News in a report published on Monday.
“He had jumped the second the shooting started. He managed to throw bricks. He was screaming at the terrorist and protecting his community,” she said. “If there is one way for him to go on this earth it would be fighting a terrorist.”
Morrison’s actions are visible in several videos posted on social media. After 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim father-of-two, charged one of the gunmen from behind and disarmed him, a man is seen chasing the terrorist and hurling something at him. Morrison, who originally came from the USSR, was later shot and killed, according to Gutnick.
Ahmed is recovering in hospital after surgery for bullet wounds and donations to support him have topped A$2 million ($1.33 million).
Morrison was one of 15 people killed in what is Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years. Officials allege a father and son are the gunmen and say the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.
Another couple, who have not yet been identified, were also filmed tackling one of the terrorists to stop him before apparently being shot dead.
The dashcam footage, verified by Reuters, showed one shooter wrestling for a long-barrelled weapon with an older man in a lavender shirt and shorts, before both fall heavily to the ground behind a silver hatchback car.
The man in lavender, who is with a woman, gets up with the weapon as the footage moves on. Separate drone video shows the man and woman lying motionless next to the vehicle beside the pedestrian bridge where the gunmen were later shot by police.
“An elderly man by the roadside did not run away — instead, he charged straight toward the danger, using all his strength trying to wrestle away the gun and fighting to the death,” said dashcam owner Jenny, who shared the footage with Reuters.
“I can see from my camera that the elderly man was ultimately shot and collapsed. That moment broke my heart,” she added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier this week praised the actions of Australians who had “run towards danger in order to help others”.
“These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives,” he told a press conference.
($1 = 1.5065 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Stella Qiu in Sydney and Lucy Craymer in Wellington; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
