Bondi shooting: Heroic refugee kicks gun away from Bondi terrorist during horrific attack

The man who bravely apprehended the injured terrorist at Bondi is a Middle Eastern refugee who cannot get residency in Australia due to a ‘minor’ criminal record, his lawyer revealed.

Human rights lawyer Alison Battisson says her client, who does not want to be named, arrived at Bondi in a taxi on the tragic evening of Sunday, December 14, when he heard gunshots.

According to Ms Battisson, the man’s taxi driver wanted to drive away but the man wanted to be let out of the car to “go and help”, and managed to get next to a plain-clothes police officer who was stationed in the trees next to the pedestrian bridge where the gunman Naveed Akram was shooting from.

“(The man) had in his mind that the gunman would have to reload at some point, and that would be an opportunity to stop them,” Ms Battison said.

“He comes from a country where there are random acts of violence and state violence, so he wants his children to be safe in Australia... he waited until he thought they were reloading, he didn’t realise (Akram) had been hit.”

Footage on social media shows the man approaching Akram, who was lying on the pedestrian bridge after being shot by police but was “conscious” and still holding the gun, according to Ms Battison.

The man then kicks Akram’s rifle away and puts his hands up as he is swarmed by police and other bystanders, and is heard shouting “don’t shoot”.

It appears the man was mistaken for the terrorist himself, as he was apprehended on the ground by police and attacked by some of the bystanders, but was later released after the plain-clothes police officer cleared him.

The man, who is a refugee, has had a “difficult” time applying for permanent residency because of a “traumatic” history in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, according to Ms Battisson.

“Here we have someone who stood up to his own government in the Middle East, and was pretty horrendously tortured in ways that are pretty unspeakable,” she said.

“UNHCR recommended him as a refugee to Australia, and we took him, but he does have a minor criminal record and you can see the causal impacts of that from previous untreated trauma... we’re talking driving offences and a common assault, and a low-level domestic violence (charge) with no injury.”

The man has an Australian wife and two Australian children with another on the way, one of whom has been “very, very ill” so the family are “struggling” with the man’s temporary visa status.

“(That) is why it is really extraordinary that for a country that doesn’t want him, if we’re perfectly honest because of the temporary status of his visa, that he would literally get out of a car and run towards what was happening,” Ms Battisson said.

“His kids all have Aussie accents, he’s completely ocker.”