Source : Perth Now news
Ahmed Al Ahmed remains in physical pain, with two bullets still in his arm, almost a year after the Bondi terror attack, but the hero says there is one thing he regrets the most about that day.
“I wish I saved the people who lost their life,” he told A Current Affair on Monday.
He remains haunted by poor sleep and nightmares.
“I don’t get enough sleep,” he said.
The local businessman had been out to get a coffee when he spotted one of the two terrorists and bravely disarmed him during the Bondi Beach massacre at the Jewish Hanukkah festival on December 14 last year, saving countless lives. Fifteen people were killed.
“When I saw the terrorist, he came in front of me, and I didn’t think,” he said.
“I said, ‘that’s it, I must stop him and do something’. I couldn’t handle the screaming and the crying.
“I ask God to help me, here at the moment I find myself, I can do it, and then I ran to the danger.”
The father-of-two said he remembered every moment.
“The terrorist … his face, when I hit him … it’s evil, you know?” he said.
“He thinks he’s a god and he can take anyone’s life.
“And he looked to me and he [was] shocked.”
Mr Al Ahmed became the most famous man in the world and while he was recovering in hospital he was given a cheque for $2.5m raised by strangers in an online fundraiser.
But his fame and fortune also had a negative impact on his life.
Two of his brothers were charged with trying to extort money from him. The case is still before the courts.
His father also accused him of assault but then withdrew the allegation.
Trolls online were also relentless.
“It hurts, it hurts a lot and I think it’s hurt me more than the shooting,” he said.
“I don’t look to put myself in front of everyone, ‘I’m a hero’, no.”
Two bullets remain in his left arm.
“The finger, I have a limited feeling, limited range of movement of the elbow and the hand, but [apart from that] I’m doing good,” he said.
“But it’s still very painful.”
He also wants people to remember it was a Muslim man who stood up to the gunman at a Jewish celebration.
“It’s important for the Australian community,” he said.
“As an Australian Muslim I did it for my Australian community. Not only for the Muslims.
“Religion, it’s second, but we have to treat ourselves first as a human being.”
