Bondi Beach Shooting Hero Who Disarmed Gunman Breaks Silence: 'My Soul Told Me to Do That' By Dave Quinn

Ahmed al Ahmed, the man hailed as a hero for tackling one of the gunmen behind an antisemitic attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach earlier this month, is speaking publicly for the first time about the moment that changed his life.

In an exclusive interview with CBS News airing Monday on CBS Mornings, al Ahmed said he acted without hesitation as shots rang out during a Hanukkah celebration on Dec. 14.

“I didn’t worry about anything,” he said. “My target was just to take the gun from him, and to stop him from killing a human being’s life and not killing innocent people.”

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Asked what was going through his mind, al Ahmed told CBS News’ Foreign Correspondent Anna Coren that he “couldn’t handle it to hear kids and women and [the elderly] and men screaming and asking for help” and seeing “no one help.”

“My soul and everything in my organ and my brain asked me to go on defense and to save innocent life,” he said, noting there were “hundreds and hundreds of people all on the ground” around him. “I didn’t think about it.”

He said the decision to intervene felt instinctive. “Emotionally, I’m doing something,” he said. “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.”

“That’s my soul asking me to do that,” he added. “That’s my soul asking me to do that and everything in my heart and my brain, everything. It worked to manage and to save the people’s [lives].”

Fifteen people were killed in the Dec. 14 shooting, and another 41 were hospitalized with injuries, according to officials.

Police identified the attackers as Sajid Akram, 50, who was killed by officers at the scene, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who has since been charged with 59 offenses, including committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of causing wounding/grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder.

In the attacks, Al Ahmed — a Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner — was shot five times, and was only just released from the hospital on Sunday, Dec. 28. He still has two bullets lodged in his shoulder and has nerve damage to his hand that doctors say may never fully recover. Over $2.6 million has since been raised for him on GoFundMe.

Beyond the money, Al Ahmed has received international praise for disarming one of two gunmen accused of carrying out the mass shooting, which authorities say deliberately targeted Sydney’s Jewish community.

Surveillance footage from the beachfront showed al Ahmed emerging from behind a parked car and wrestling one of the attackers to the ground, managing to take away his weapon before he himself was wounded.

“I jumped on his back, hit him,” al Ahmed recalled of the struggle. “I hold him with my right hand and start saying a word — to warn him — drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing. And it all came fast.”

Did he think about shooting the gunman? “I take the gun from him, of course. But I didn’t think to shoot,” he said. “I didn’t want to put my hand in blood. I don’t think I can take life of people.”

He also wasn’t thinking about the second gunman on the bridge. “My target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being’s life,” al Ahmed said.

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Al Ahmed added that while he believes his actions saved lives, the loss still weighs on him. “I know I saved lots of people’s life, but I feel sorry for the lost,” he said.

“I risked my life for innocent human beings,” he said. “I can’t call them strangers because they are human being like me, like you.”

CBS Mornings airs weekdays (beginning at 7 a.m. ET) on CBS.