Bogus report spreads false claims about Bondi Beach hero's identity
- Published on December 17, 2025 at 09:48
- Updated on December 17, 2025 at 09:55
- 3 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India
Australians have lauded a man who was filmed wrestling a gun from an attacker during the country's worst mass shooting in years. Local media identified him as Ahmed al Ahmed, but baseless posts that spread widely on social media insisted his name was Edward Crabtree. The false claim originated on a sham news website that was only registered on the day of the attack that killed 15 people.
"It is Edward Crabtree, not the muslim who disarmed the muslim terrorist," reads part of a Facebook post shared December 15, 2025.
The accompanying screenshot apparently shows a report from a website called "The Daily", with a headline that says: "'I Just Acted': Bondi Local Edward Crabtree Disarms Gunman in Terrifying Attack".
The article says Crabtree is a "43-year-old IT professional" who "grew up in Marrickville in Sydney's inner west".
A father and son duo opened fire on people thronging the famous Sydney beach for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on December 14, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more (archived link).
Police shot and killed 50-year-old Sajid Akram while Naveed Akram, 24, was also shot and remained in hospital under police guard.
Authorities said the attack was designed to sow panic among the nation's Jews.
Footage that emerged on social media depicted a man risking his own life by grabbing one of the gunmen as he fired on people who were out of view of the recording (archived link).
The man then wrestles the gun out of the attacker's hand, before pointing the weapon at the assailant who backs away.
Local media identified him as Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit seller, and reported he had suffered two gunshot wounds.
But posts falsely claiming the man's name is Edward Crabtree soon ricocheted on Facebook and Instagram -- sparking a wave of Islamophobic comments.
On social media site X, the AI chatbot Grok similarly named the man as Edward Crabtree.
'Source of pride'
Multiple Australian officials including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have referred to the Bondi hero as Ahmed.
"Ahmed, you are an Australian hero. You put yourself at risk to save others, running towards danger on Bondi Beach and disarming a terrorist," Albanese said on X December 16, sharing a video of their meeting (archived link).
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said in identical posts on Facebook, X and Instagram: "Ahmed is a real-life hero." (archived link here, here and here).
The 44-year-old Ahmed has also become a source of pride for his hometown in Syria, AFP reported (archived link).
"His act is a source of pride for us and for Syria," Ahmed's uncle Mohammed, a farmer, told AFP in the town of Al-Nayrab.
Ahmed, a father of two children, emigrated to Australia from Syria in 2007, 60-year-old Mohammed said. He started out as a construction worker before opening a fruit and vegetable shop in Sydney.
"This incident caused a global sensation. He is from Syria and he is a Muslim, and he had no motivation for doing this other than heroism and bravery," the uncle said.
Bogus site
Moreover, an analysis of the page that spawned the misinformation found it was not a genuine news site.
A search on the public Whois database, which shows contact information for those who own websites, found it was registered on December 14 -- the day of the Bondi Beach attack (archived link).
Beyond the fabricated Bondi Beach story, the only other article that appears on the site is one about global carbon emissions.
Supposed reports about elections in South America and peace talks in the Middle East lead to this same article. Other tabs also lead to nonexistent pages.
The site's URL appears to mimic Australian media The Daily Aus but its homepage does not bear any resemblance to the latter.
AFP has debunked other false claims around the Bondi Beach shooting.
December 17, 2025 Updates first two paragraphs for clarity
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