Australia mass shooting latest: Suspects identified after 15 killed at Bondi Beach
Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram have been identified as the father and son who allegedly opened fire on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney, according to a briefing distributed to U.S. law enforcement and reviewed by ABC News.
Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, allegedly stood on an overpass bridge near the event and shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they carried out the massacre, according to the briefing.
Fifteen people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded in Sunday's mass shooting.
Sajid Akram was allegedly moving closer to the Hanukkah event when a bystander intervened to stop him, the briefing said.
Video captured the moment the bystander jumped in and wrestled a gun away. That bystander, Ahmad Al Ahmad, was injured and hospitalized, New South Wales Police told ABC News.
The father was shot and killed by police and the son was critically hurt and hospitalized, officials said.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters the son is an Australian-born citizen and the father arrived in 1998 on a student visa.
It appears "they weren't part of a wider cell," but were motivated by extremist ideology, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC Australia.
Australian law enforcement determined that "the suspects had pledged allegiance to ISIS," according to the briefing obtained by ABC News, and "Naveed was previously investigated in 2019 due to possible ties to a Sydney-based ISIS-linked cell."
Australia is now grieving the 15 victims killed, who range in age from 10 to 87, the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team said.
Albanese said he's now proposing tougher gun laws.
The National Cabinet met on Monday and ordered police and prosecutors to come up with options for stricter gun laws, including: "Accelerating work on standing up the National Firearms Register; Allowing for additional use of criminal intelligence to underpin firearms licencing that can be used in administrative licencing regimes; Limiting the number of firearms to be held by any one individual; Limiting open-ended firearms licencing and the types of guns that are legal, including modifications; and A condition of a firearm license is holding Australian citizenship," according to the prime minister's office.
Four guns and three improvised explosive devices were found at the crime scene and two more guns were found in searches at homes, the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team said.
The father had a gun license since 2015 and six licensed firearms, officials said.
Albanese said on Monday the massacre would be remembered as a "dark day in Australia's history." The prime minister encouraged everyone in Australia to put a candle in their windows on Monday evening to show "that light will indeed defeat darkness."
Pope Leo spoke out on social media on Monday, writing, "Enough with this antisemitic violence! Let us eliminate hatred from our hearts."
ABC News' Josh Margolin, Ellie Kaufman, Aicha El-Hammar and Dada Jovanovic contributed to this report.
