The father and son behind Bondi Beach massacre: Fruit shop owner and bricklayer son who killed 15 at Hanukkah celebration
The two gunman involved in the Bondi Beach shooting were a fruit shop owner and his 24-year-old son.
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Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid, 50, have been identified as the attackers who opened fire on a Hannukah celebration in Sydney, killing 15 people.
Sajid was shot by police at the scene. His son remains in hospital under police guard.
Their home in Bonnyrigg, 50km west of Bondi, was raided by police hours after the shooting.
Who are Naveed Akram and his father?
Naveed Akram has been described as a ‘quiet loner’ at school who dropped out.
He was described as a ‘really nice, smart and polite kid,’ and ‘the last person you would expect’ to be involved.
He is believed to have started at Cabramatta High School, in Sydney’s West in year 7 in 2014 before leaving around year 10 or 11 and dropping out to work as a bricklayer.
Former classmate Steven Luong told the Daily Mail: “I could have never imagined in 100 years that this could be his doing.
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“'He was a very nice person. He never did anything unusual.
“He never even interrupted in class.”
Another classmate described Akram as ‘one of the smart kids’
His mother described him as a “very good boy” and she said she didn’t believe he was in possession of any guns.
She said he told the family he was going to Jervis Bay with his father for a weekend of fishing and swimming.
She said: “He rings me up [on Sunday] and said, "Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving. We're going… to eat now" ‘
“And then this morning, "we're going to stay home now because it's very hot,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
She described him as a “very good boy” who didn’t go out much, didn’t ‘mix around’ with friends. “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t go to bad places,” she said.
His father Sajid was shot dead by police at the scene of the shooting.
NSW Police have confirmed Sajid had held a gun licence since 2015 and all firearms registered to him were legally owned. Both men were also members of local gun clubs.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said: “He has six firearms licensed to him. We are satisfied that we have six firearms from the scene yesterday, but also as a result of the search warrant at the Campsie address.
“Ballistics and forensic investigation will determine those six firearms are the six that were licensed to that man, but also they were used in the offence yesterday at Bondi.
“We will continue to investigate this matter thoroughly.”
Sajid Akram arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998, which was transferred in 2001 to a partner visa and later resident return visas.
He had a firearms licence for recreational hunting and was a member of a gun club.
Australian media report that Naveed was examined over close ties to a Sydney based IS terrorism cell but was not deemed to pose any immediate threat.
Social media posts from an Islamic centre in Australia show Naveed completed religious studies in 2022, raising questions about possible radicalisation and extremist networks operating in the country.
Australia's domestic security intelligence agency, ASIO, said that one of the shooters was on their radar.
“One of these individuals was known to us, but not in an immediate threat perspective,” ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said.
“So obviously we need to look into what happened.”
Police believe the men had travelled to a short-term rental property about 30 minutes from Bondi beach. A single-storey grey building in Campsie has become one of the main focuses of the police investigation.
The shooting comes during escalating tensions between Australia and Iran, following a series of suspected Iranian-directed attacks on Jewish targets in the country.
Australian officials have not publicly confirmed any foreign involvement.
Israeli officials cited Iran as a primary suspect if a state actor were involved. They are also examining possible links to groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to Israeli media reports.