The antisemitic terrorist attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on 14 December saw a father and son, Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, open fire during a Hanukkah celebration, killing 16 people, including one gunman, and injuring dozens. Police shot Sajid Akram at the scene, while Naveed Akram remains in critical but stable condition under guard and is expected to face charges if he survives. Authorities have designated the incident as an Islamic State-linked terrorist attack, with reports of an ISIS flag and an improvised explosive device recovered during the investigation (here, here, and here). Soon after the attack, videos showing a civilian courageously tackling and disarming one of the shooters went viral. Now, several social media posts (here, here) are circulating that identify Edward Crabtree as the person who bravely disarmed a shooter during the Bondi Beach terror attack in Australia. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: Edward Crabtree was the civilian who bravely tackled and disarmed one of the shooters during the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney.
Fact: The civilian who bravely tackled and disarmed one of the shooters during the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney has been identified as Ahmed Al Ahmed, not Edward Crabtree. Multiple media reports have confirmed this. Additionally, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly acknowledged him as Ahmed in an X post dated 16 December 2025, calling him an “Australian hero.” Further, BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh clarified that the viral identification of Crabtree originated from a misleading article published by a website named The Daily. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A Google search using relevant keywords led us to multiple reports covering the incident (here, here, and here). These reports state that the individual who rushed towards one of the shooters and grabbed his firearm was 43-year-old Ahmed Al Ahmed. His parents, Mohamed Fateh Al Ahmed and Malakeh Hasan Al Ahmed, told the media that he sustained four to five gunshot wounds to the shoulder, with several bullets still embedded in his body.
We also found an X post by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dated 16 December 2025, in which he is seen meeting the civilian who tackled and disarmed one of the shooters during the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney. In the post, Albanese praised him, saying, “Ahmed, you are an Australian hero.”
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a BBC journalist, debunked the claim in an X post dated 14 December 2025, confirming that it was Ahmed, not Crabtree, who disarmed the shooter. The post also featured an image of a misleading article that falsely identified Crabtree as the “hero of the Bondi Beach attack.” The information claiming Crabtree had disarmed the shooter was traced back to an article published on a website named The Daily.
To sum up, the civilian who disarmed one of the Bondi Beach shooters is Ahmed Al Ahmed, not Edward Crabtree.
