New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon said police did ‘a fantastic job’
An eyewitness from Sunday’s massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, stated police officers hesitated as two terrorists sprayed bullets at a group of Jews gathered to celebrate Hanukkah, while video analysis indicates law enforcement waited several minutes after arriving on the scene to engage the shooters.
Shmulik Scuri, who was on the beach with his family during the attack, told reporters that 4 police officers in the vicinity “froze” as the terrorists fired into a crowd of 2,000, killing at least 15 and wounding 40 more.
“They shoot, shoot,” Scuri said. “Change magazines. And just shoot … there was four policemen there. Nobody give fire back. Nothing. Like they froze.”
At least one of the attackers, Scuri added, could be seen “freely reloading a rifle and handgun as he was firing at the crowd uninterrupted.”
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) published a timeline of events based on video available on social media that suggests the two shooters—identified as 50-year-old Pakistani Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son, Naveed—began firing no later than 6:42 p.m., when video shows the crowd running from the beach. Police, who appear to have been present at the scene nearly from the start, did not begin returning fire until about 6:48 p.m.
“Loud police sirens and gunshots from at least two weapons can already be heard” at 6:42, according to the AFR analysis, “suggesting police were responding to the attack very soon after the shooting began.” It was not until 6:48, though, when a bystander identified as 43-year-old Ahmed el-Ahmed rushed and disarmed Sajid, when “the first shots from police in the video can be seen coming from the west and ricocheting near Naveed, who ducks for cover.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in its own analysis of video taken at the scene, reported that it was when el-Ahmed tackled Sajid that “the gunmen appear[ed] to start to come under fire from police.”
Video of the attack shows an armed police officer taking cover behind a car after Sajid ran from el-Ahmed and joined his son on a nearby bridge. Police shot and killed Sajid around 6:50 p.m., the AFR and ABC analyses show, and critically wounded Naveed a minute later.
When asked at a press conference about claims that police did not return fire soon enough during the shooting, New South Wales premier Chris Minns told reporters it was not the time to debate the law enforcement response.
“I am not going to speculate on that right now,” he said. “What I will say is that there are two New South Wales police officers in critical condition in New South Wales hospitals who stepped into the breach, could’ve lost their lives last night. I’m not going to go into the circumstances of police officers that returned fire, but I can tell you their bravery, their courage in these circumstances saved countless lives, and I would just urge everybody, don’t jump to conclusions at this point.”
New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon, for his part, said at a press conference after the attack that “police responded promptly.”
“There was a massive police response, and I think as journalists you have seen how quickly and promptly the police responded,” he continued. “I am incredibly proud of the professionalism of our police and emergency service responders. They have done a fantastic job.”
Questions about the police response come after a shooting that capped a wave of anti-Semitic violence in Australia, with threats and arson attacks becoming commonplace at Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues across the country. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese—who has drawn ire from Australian Jews for his failure to address these attacks—released a statement that made no mention of Jews or anti-Semitism, earning him a rebuke from Israeli officials like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said, noting that he warned Albanese that his decision to recognize a Palestinian state would only embolden anti-Semites. President Donald Trump and numerous Middle East experts also said at the time that recognition of Palestinian statehood would reward Hamas and its allies for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
Australian intelligence, the ABC reported, investigated the younger shooter for a six-month period for his links to ISIS but determined he was not a threat and allowed his household to keep six firearms. Authorities in the country now believe both father and son pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Two ISIS flags were found in their vehicle near the attack, one of which was visible on the car’s hood, according to authorities.
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