December 17, 2025 • 18 mins
On the evening of the shooting at Bondi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian” – that was indeed proven when the entire community sprung into action, those who ran towards the disaster, not away from it.
There are tales of heroism, like the couple who first tried to stop the gunmen and paid with their lives, the man who single-handedly wrestled the rifle out of the shooter’s hands and those who shielded their loved ones and strangers from bullets.
Today, chief reporter Jordan Baker, on the acts of bravery and kindness at Bondi.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:02):
From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Seelinger Morris. On
the evening of the shooting at Bondi. Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese said an attack on Jewish Australians is an attack
on every Australian, and that was indeed proven when the
(00:25):
entire community sprang into action. Those who ran towards the disaster,
not away from it. There are tales of heroism, like
the couple who first tried to stop the gunman and
paid with their lives. The man who single handedly wrestled
the rifle out of the shooter's hands, and those who
shielded their loved ones and strangers from bullets. Today, chief
(00:49):
reporter Jordan Baker on the acts of bravery and kindness
at Bondi. So, Jordan, welcome back.
S2 (01:02):
Thanks, Sam.
S1 (01:03):
It's been four days since we last spoke to you.
That was the evening of the shooting. And you were
actually down at Bondi not long after the shooting started.
Of course, we've been flooded with footage of the tragedy
since then, but we also witnessed so much bravery, love
and support from members of the public during and in
the aftermath. Right.
S3 (01:25):
It's been extraordinary. You know, there were people who were
doing CPR. There were people who just these are just
average people like you and me who ran towards danger.
S4 (01:36):
I got you, I got you.
S5 (01:37):
Are you high?
S4 (01:38):
Yeah. We can hide, baby.
S3 (01:42):
Which I think is an extraordinary instinct. You could be
forgiven for running away from it, for I think I would. So,
you know, we had people who were on scooters, were
kind of driving up the road, warning each other.
S6 (01:54):
Normally we'd turn off, but we went down the whole
promenade and I just screamed at the top of my
lungs like, run! He has a gun! Run! He has gone.
S3 (02:09):
We had people taking in complete strangers into their house.
You know, a lot of people sort of jumping into
whatever flat they could find. And of course, then in
the days afterward, obviously, there was a call for the
blood bank. You know, it's been absolutely inundated with people
wanting to give blood, people wanting to do anything they
possibly can.
S7 (02:29):
Behind me, there is certainly a sea of people here
at Town Hall in Sydney. Lifeblood has been inundated with
a line right out the door and certainly dozens more inside.
S3 (02:42):
The GoFundMe page for Ahmed Al Ahmed, who may lose
his arm, was the last we heard.
S8 (02:48):
Ahmed Al Ahmed, the hero who wrestled a gun from
one of the killers.
S3 (02:53):
You know, last time I checked, it was sort of
heading towards $2 million from all over the world. I
think people are Extraordinary. In these crises, people dig to
depths that they didn't know they had. The community rallies
in a way that we always know it can, I suppose,
but it's beautiful to see when it does. And that. Yeah,
(03:16):
as we said before, it's a reminder that there is
far more good in this world and that when the
chips are down, we do come together.
S1 (03:24):
I totally I'm with you, as I imagine so many
listeners are. It really sort of it just helps buoy
you up even that little bit. And of course, I've
got to ask you about Boris and Sofia Gherman, this
is the couple in their 60s who saw the two
gunmen before they began their massacre. Boris and Sofia saw
the men as they were getting out of their car
(03:45):
on the way to the Hanukkah celebration. They tried to
stop these men and they paid for their lives. They
were the first victims of this massacre. So tell us
a bit about this incredible couple.
S3 (03:56):
So it's these stories are sort of emerging over the
last few days. And this this story is just it's
incredible what these people did, you know, and I think
a lot of us look at that and think, would
I be that brave? And I don't know if I would.
So this couple, you know, they're Russian Jewish couple just
walking along Campbell Parade on a Sunday afternoon. It was hot.
(04:19):
Everyone was out. You know, it was one of those
classic Sydney afternoons. They're walking along and a little silver
Hyundai hatchback is parked just on the on the curb side.
And they see the Islamic State flag. And their reaction
(04:40):
was to fight straight away, which is just incredible. They
realized what they saw. They realized that they were seeing
these people come out of this car and they were armed.
So there's 69 year old man who was unarmed, tackled
one of these men onto the road and took his
(05:02):
rifle off him and aimed at the man, which is
just an extraordinary thing to do. He looked like he
almost had the upper hand for a little while. The
footage jumps in and out, and what we then find
out is that both members of that couple died. So
(05:22):
in their extraordinarily courageous attempts to stop this from happening,
they both lost their own lives. Um, but what a
what a what an incredible example of of just sort of, um,
almost incomprehensible courage. These, these this couple was, you know,
(05:45):
61 and 69. They were a good 40 years older
than one of the gunmen and and a good, you know, ten,
15 odd years older than the other one. And they
reacted so instinctively. So, you know, I think they will
be forever remembered as absolute heroes.
S1 (06:01):
Absolutely. And of course, we've got to speak about Ahmed
Al Ahmed. He, of course, is the man who's been
celebrated across the world after he single handedly wrestled the
Long Rifle off of one of the shooters. You know,
footage of his absolutely unimaginable feat of bravery. It's been
viewed tens of millions of times. So tell me about him.
And also what we know now about how many people
(06:23):
he might have saved.
S3 (06:25):
So this guy was going for coffee. He was visiting Bondi.
He lives elsewhere in Sydney as a tobacconist. He migrated
here from Syria decades ago, and he was just walking
along the street and he saw this unfold, unlike that
earlier couple. His instinct was to react. He actually said
(06:46):
to his cousin who he was with at the time, look,
I'm probably going to die when I do this. And
he went and he did it anyway. And he snuck
up on the elder gunman who had sort of walked
down towards the sort of grass area who was holding
a very high powered weapon, who Ahmed Al Ahmed had
(07:07):
seen him use. He sort of snuck up behind him
so that the gunmen didn't see him coming and jumped
on him, grabbed the shotgun.
S5 (07:19):
Oh.
S3 (07:20):
And pointed at this elder gunman. And the gunman ended
up sort of scurrying back up to the footbridge. But
people now estimate that he may have saved more than
30 people with that particular act of bravery and doing
something like that, when you know that the likely outcome
(07:44):
is that you won't survive is just extraordinary. And all
around the world, people have hailed the bravery of this man.
S9 (07:55):
Well, it was a great honor to meet Ahmed Al Ahmed.
He is a true Australian hero.
S8 (08:01):
King Charles has sent a personal message of thanks to
the brave father of two who's.
S10 (08:07):
A brave person, who's right now in the hospital. Great
respect to that man that did that.
S9 (08:11):
I had a stroke.
S11 (08:13):
Thank you. Your courage is inspiring.
S12 (08:16):
Thank you very much.
S11 (08:17):
Very strong.
S3 (08:21):
His local village back in Syria. You know, they're celebrating him.
You know, it's a really extraordinary story of somebody who
liked the couple who tried to disarm the gunman a
few minutes earlier, put their own safety second to that
of those around them, which is something that, again, you know,
(08:45):
I don't know if all of us would do it.
It's it's it's an incredibly, incredibly selfless instinct.
S1 (08:54):
Totally. I mean, I think I'm like many people I
know who on seeing these acts of bravery, my genuine
thoughts are that I wouldn't have that bravery. And of course,
Ahmed Ahmed has two young children. Jordan, you've got kids.
I've got kids and I just don't think that would
be my instinct anyway. So I'm boggled, like most people,
I think. And then, of course, there was also an
(09:15):
unarmed man, Reuven Morrison, who lobbed a brick at the shooter.
He's tragically passed away. So tell us a bit about him.
S3 (09:23):
So he was again 62. So not a, you know,
not a young man. And yet again, he put his
own safety second to that of everyone else. He ran
towards the gunman and I believe threw a stone at
the shooter. He was there with his wife to celebrate
(09:45):
the first night of Hanukkah at the festival that these
gunmen were targeting.
S13 (09:50):
He jumped up at the sign of terror. He didn't
lay low. He didn't cower. He jumped to protect, to
save the ones he loved, cost him his life. And
he saved lives. He saved so many lives. I got
a message from a friend of mine.
S14 (10:05):
A lot of the stories of these.
S3 (10:06):
People, Sam, are extraordinary. And it goes to, I think,
the extraordinary history of the Jewish community in Sydney. What
these people have been through to get here is incredible
in itself. So, you know, this particular man was born
in Kiev under the sort of iron curtain of the
(10:27):
Soviet Union. He fled at 14 years old with nothing.
He found a home in Australia. He and his wife
had what they called a sort of miracle baby. And
from all accounts that, you know, life in the Soviet Union,
in Ukraine at that period was very, very, very difficult.
You know, so he found and built a home here
(10:50):
amongst a community that was loving. He was enjoying, you know,
a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Bondi. And, you know, he
he dug into himself to find that bravery which is
just extraordinary. And he too will be remembered as a hero.
S1 (11:06):
Absolutely. And we know that his daughter, Shayna Gutnick. She
has spoken to one of our colleagues, Sharon Grosh, and
she told Sharon that she has friends who told her
that they were hiding their own babies underneath them on
the ground, who said that her dad had saved them.
At least that's their perspective because he took minutes off
the shooting. So it really is just extraordinary. And something
(11:29):
else that's really quite fascinating, of course, is that Ahmed
Al Ahmed is a muslim man of Syrian origin, and he,
of course, has stood up in this most extraordinary ways
to defend those in the Jewish community. So what does
it mean to members of the Jewish community to have
this man, this Muslim man, stand up to these gunmen?
S3 (11:50):
I think what that shows is the broader story that
can be easy to forget in times like this, that
no two people define a community. And so the fact
that these gunmen appear to be sort of ISIS related
terrorists doesn't necessarily mean that everyone in their community shares
(12:15):
their views. And in fact, you know, there is so
much more good than bad in our world and in
our community. And, you know, for every bad actor, there
are countless brave, generous, kind people who will do what's
right regardless of the context, who embrace their fellow man,
(12:38):
regardless of their religion or background. And I think the
Ahmed Al Ahmed story is a powerful reminder of that.
And I think, you know, he saved, saved many, many
people in his act. But his act, I think, has
also had the wider effect of protecting, I think, community cohesion,
(13:01):
you know, reminding us of the fact that that most
people are most people are good.
S1 (13:08):
That's it. And I think so much illustrating that and
something that absolutely has just, you know, made my heart
swell is the lifeguards who sprang into action on Sunday.
I mean, this is just the best of us, isn't it?
I think many of those who are listening were probably gobsmacked,
as I was to see that incredible photo of the lifeguard,
Jackson Doolin, who sprinted barefoot from Tamarama to deliver medical
(13:32):
supplies to Bondi. So maybe tell us what you know
about him and others like him too, that have sort of,
you know, have now come out that they've got incredible
stories of bravery.
S3 (13:41):
So the lifeguards and lifesavers at Bondi really swung into action.
When I was down there on Sunday night, I watched
them hosing down their surfboards, which had been covered in blood.
They had been using those surfboards as kind of makeshift
stretchers before the ambulances got there. We saw that picture
of one of the lifeguards bolting to get medical supplies
(14:02):
to bring down to the kind of site of the attack.
You know, we've heard stories of lifeguards running in to
save people from drowning as the attack is happening.
S15 (14:12):
Michael Jenkinson and Mario Marfella were on duty and as
bullets are still being fired, they went into the area
where people were on the ground bleeding and started forming, um,
you know, first aid resuscitations. Absolutely incredible. And Rory was
on the shore and performed a rescue in the middle
of it all. While while this was happening.
S3 (14:33):
And there's also one story about some poor woman who was,
you know, went into labour at the time, who was
helped by the lifesavers and also the lifesavers, you know,
took a lot of the children from the children's playground
at the time, which was adjacent to the festival site,
into the surf club. When I was there, they were
(14:54):
escorting a lot of elderly people into the surf club
in particular. It sort of became it had also been
the surf club was a kind of refuge during the shooting.
So a lot of people went there and by all
accounts it was, you know, terrifying. But all these children
were sort of in there had lost their parents and
and so it was in another case too, I heard
(15:17):
of a couple of kids whose mother had been shot,
and the lifesavers came and just grabbed those kids and
took them inside the Surf Lifesaving Club. Their first thought
was for the children. I think that shows a lot
about the Bondi community, that that they're there for each other.
S1 (15:37):
So I guess how do you reflect on these stories?
You know that all those people who did run towards
danger and did place themselves in harm's way for for
perfect strangers, for others? I don't know. Does it make
you feel any differently about the city that you're from
that you've grown up in?
S3 (15:53):
I was incredibly moved by the stories. I was moved
by the bravery. I was moved by the sort of
loving nature of not only the Jewish community in Bondi,
but the whole Bondi community and, you know, I think
(16:17):
like the rest of us, for me and for all
our reporters and I probably speak on behalf of a
lot of the reporters in the Sydney Morning Herald and
The Age newsrooms, we're all probably take a little while
for us to process what we've seen, because none of
us have really seen this. You know, there's a few
people who worked on the Port Arthur massacre, but, you know,
(16:38):
we have a young newsroom and it's you know, we're
sort of also, I think, checking on each other a lot. And, um,
I thank all our reporters for doing such a wonderful
job of doing that. So our reporters are there to
tell the story of these people who have had the
hardest days of their lives, and they have shown incredible bravery,
(16:59):
not only, you know, in the actions that they took
at the time, but in telling us their stories afterwards.
So I want to thank them as well. I want
to thank everyone for their time and for their bravery
and for their generosity.
S1 (17:12):
Well, it's been just great to speak to you about this, uh,
these stories that have emerged. So thank you so much, Jordan,
for your time.
S2 (17:20):
Thanks, Sam.
S1 (17:30):
Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Julia Carcasole.
Our executive producer is Tami Mills. Tom Mackendrick is our
head of audio. To listen to our episodes as soon
as they drop, follow the Morning Edition on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our newsrooms are powered
by subscriptions, so to support independent journalism, visit the page
(17:52):
or smh.com.au. Subscribe. And to stay up to date, sign
up to our Morning Edition newsletter to receive a summary
of the day's most important news in your inbox every morning.
Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger. Morris,
thanks for listening.
From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Seelinger Morris. On
the evening of the shooting at Bondi. Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese said an attack on Jewish Australians is an attack
on every Australian, and that was indeed proven when the
(00:25):
entire community sprang into action. Those who ran towards the disaster,
not away from it. There are tales of heroism, like
the couple who first tried to stop the gunman and
paid with their lives. The man who single handedly wrestled
the rifle out of the shooter's hands, and those who
shielded their loved ones and strangers from bullets. Today, chief
(00:49):
reporter Jordan Baker on the acts of bravery and kindness
at Bondi. So, Jordan, welcome back.
S2 (01:02):
Thanks, Sam.
S1 (01:03):
It's been four days since we last spoke to you.
That was the evening of the shooting. And you were
actually down at Bondi not long after the shooting started.
Of course, we've been flooded with footage of the tragedy
since then, but we also witnessed so much bravery, love
and support from members of the public during and in
the aftermath. Right.
S3 (01:25):
It's been extraordinary. You know, there were people who were
doing CPR. There were people who just these are just
average people like you and me who ran towards danger.
S4 (01:36):
I got you, I got you.
S5 (01:37):
Are you high?
S4 (01:38):
Yeah. We can hide, baby.
S3 (01:42):
Which I think is an extraordinary instinct. You could be
forgiven for running away from it, for I think I would. So,
you know, we had people who were on scooters, were
kind of driving up the road, warning each other.
S6 (01:54):
Normally we'd turn off, but we went down the whole
promenade and I just screamed at the top of my
lungs like, run! He has a gun! Run! He has gone.
S3 (02:09):
We had people taking in complete strangers into their house.
You know, a lot of people sort of jumping into
whatever flat they could find. And of course, then in
the days afterward, obviously, there was a call for the
blood bank. You know, it's been absolutely inundated with people
wanting to give blood, people wanting to do anything they
possibly can.
S7 (02:29):
Behind me, there is certainly a sea of people here
at Town Hall in Sydney. Lifeblood has been inundated with
a line right out the door and certainly dozens more inside.
S3 (02:42):
The GoFundMe page for Ahmed Al Ahmed, who may lose
his arm, was the last we heard.
S8 (02:48):
Ahmed Al Ahmed, the hero who wrestled a gun from
one of the killers.
S3 (02:53):
You know, last time I checked, it was sort of
heading towards $2 million from all over the world. I
think people are Extraordinary. In these crises, people dig to
depths that they didn't know they had. The community rallies
in a way that we always know it can, I suppose,
but it's beautiful to see when it does. And that. Yeah,
(03:16):
as we said before, it's a reminder that there is
far more good in this world and that when the
chips are down, we do come together.
S1 (03:24):
I totally I'm with you, as I imagine so many
listeners are. It really sort of it just helps buoy
you up even that little bit. And of course, I've
got to ask you about Boris and Sofia Gherman, this
is the couple in their 60s who saw the two
gunmen before they began their massacre. Boris and Sofia saw
the men as they were getting out of their car
(03:45):
on the way to the Hanukkah celebration. They tried to
stop these men and they paid for their lives. They
were the first victims of this massacre. So tell us
a bit about this incredible couple.
S3 (03:56):
So it's these stories are sort of emerging over the
last few days. And this this story is just it's
incredible what these people did, you know, and I think
a lot of us look at that and think, would
I be that brave? And I don't know if I would.
So this couple, you know, they're Russian Jewish couple just
walking along Campbell Parade on a Sunday afternoon. It was hot.
(04:19):
Everyone was out. You know, it was one of those
classic Sydney afternoons. They're walking along and a little silver
Hyundai hatchback is parked just on the on the curb side.
And they see the Islamic State flag. And their reaction
(04:40):
was to fight straight away, which is just incredible. They
realized what they saw. They realized that they were seeing
these people come out of this car and they were armed.
So there's 69 year old man who was unarmed, tackled
one of these men onto the road and took his
(05:02):
rifle off him and aimed at the man, which is
just an extraordinary thing to do. He looked like he
almost had the upper hand for a little while. The
footage jumps in and out, and what we then find
out is that both members of that couple died. So
(05:22):
in their extraordinarily courageous attempts to stop this from happening,
they both lost their own lives. Um, but what a
what a what an incredible example of of just sort of, um,
almost incomprehensible courage. These, these this couple was, you know,
(05:45):
61 and 69. They were a good 40 years older
than one of the gunmen and and a good, you know, ten,
15 odd years older than the other one. And they
reacted so instinctively. So, you know, I think they will
be forever remembered as absolute heroes.
S1 (06:01):
Absolutely. And of course, we've got to speak about Ahmed
Al Ahmed. He, of course, is the man who's been
celebrated across the world after he single handedly wrestled the
Long Rifle off of one of the shooters. You know,
footage of his absolutely unimaginable feat of bravery. It's been
viewed tens of millions of times. So tell me about him.
And also what we know now about how many people
(06:23):
he might have saved.
S3 (06:25):
So this guy was going for coffee. He was visiting Bondi.
He lives elsewhere in Sydney as a tobacconist. He migrated
here from Syria decades ago, and he was just walking
along the street and he saw this unfold, unlike that
earlier couple. His instinct was to react. He actually said
(06:46):
to his cousin who he was with at the time, look,
I'm probably going to die when I do this. And
he went and he did it anyway. And he snuck
up on the elder gunman who had sort of walked
down towards the sort of grass area who was holding
a very high powered weapon, who Ahmed Al Ahmed had
(07:07):
seen him use. He sort of snuck up behind him
so that the gunmen didn't see him coming and jumped
on him, grabbed the shotgun.
S5 (07:19):
Oh.
S3 (07:20):
And pointed at this elder gunman. And the gunman ended
up sort of scurrying back up to the footbridge. But
people now estimate that he may have saved more than
30 people with that particular act of bravery and doing
something like that, when you know that the likely outcome
(07:44):
is that you won't survive is just extraordinary. And all
around the world, people have hailed the bravery of this man.
S9 (07:55):
Well, it was a great honor to meet Ahmed Al Ahmed.
He is a true Australian hero.
S8 (08:01):
King Charles has sent a personal message of thanks to
the brave father of two who's.
S10 (08:07):
A brave person, who's right now in the hospital. Great
respect to that man that did that.
S9 (08:11):
I had a stroke.
S11 (08:13):
Thank you. Your courage is inspiring.
S12 (08:16):
Thank you very much.
S11 (08:17):
Very strong.
S3 (08:21):
His local village back in Syria. You know, they're celebrating him.
You know, it's a really extraordinary story of somebody who
liked the couple who tried to disarm the gunman a
few minutes earlier, put their own safety second to that
of those around them, which is something that, again, you know,
(08:45):
I don't know if all of us would do it.
It's it's it's an incredibly, incredibly selfless instinct.
S1 (08:54):
Totally. I mean, I think I'm like many people I
know who on seeing these acts of bravery, my genuine
thoughts are that I wouldn't have that bravery. And of course,
Ahmed Ahmed has two young children. Jordan, you've got kids.
I've got kids and I just don't think that would
be my instinct anyway. So I'm boggled, like most people,
I think. And then, of course, there was also an
(09:15):
unarmed man, Reuven Morrison, who lobbed a brick at the shooter.
He's tragically passed away. So tell us a bit about him.
S3 (09:23):
So he was again 62. So not a, you know,
not a young man. And yet again, he put his
own safety second to that of everyone else. He ran
towards the gunman and I believe threw a stone at
the shooter. He was there with his wife to celebrate
(09:45):
the first night of Hanukkah at the festival that these
gunmen were targeting.
S13 (09:50):
He jumped up at the sign of terror. He didn't
lay low. He didn't cower. He jumped to protect, to
save the ones he loved, cost him his life. And
he saved lives. He saved so many lives. I got
a message from a friend of mine.
S14 (10:05):
A lot of the stories of these.
S3 (10:06):
People, Sam, are extraordinary. And it goes to, I think,
the extraordinary history of the Jewish community in Sydney. What
these people have been through to get here is incredible
in itself. So, you know, this particular man was born
in Kiev under the sort of iron curtain of the
(10:27):
Soviet Union. He fled at 14 years old with nothing.
He found a home in Australia. He and his wife
had what they called a sort of miracle baby. And
from all accounts that, you know, life in the Soviet Union,
in Ukraine at that period was very, very, very difficult.
You know, so he found and built a home here
(10:50):
amongst a community that was loving. He was enjoying, you know,
a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Bondi. And, you know, he
he dug into himself to find that bravery which is
just extraordinary. And he too will be remembered as a hero.
S1 (11:06):
Absolutely. And we know that his daughter, Shayna Gutnick. She
has spoken to one of our colleagues, Sharon Grosh, and
she told Sharon that she has friends who told her
that they were hiding their own babies underneath them on
the ground, who said that her dad had saved them.
At least that's their perspective because he took minutes off
the shooting. So it really is just extraordinary. And something
(11:29):
else that's really quite fascinating, of course, is that Ahmed
Al Ahmed is a muslim man of Syrian origin, and he,
of course, has stood up in this most extraordinary ways
to defend those in the Jewish community. So what does
it mean to members of the Jewish community to have
this man, this Muslim man, stand up to these gunmen?
S3 (11:50):
I think what that shows is the broader story that
can be easy to forget in times like this, that
no two people define a community. And so the fact
that these gunmen appear to be sort of ISIS related
terrorists doesn't necessarily mean that everyone in their community shares
(12:15):
their views. And in fact, you know, there is so
much more good than bad in our world and in
our community. And, you know, for every bad actor, there
are countless brave, generous, kind people who will do what's
right regardless of the context, who embrace their fellow man,
(12:38):
regardless of their religion or background. And I think the
Ahmed Al Ahmed story is a powerful reminder of that.
And I think, you know, he saved, saved many, many
people in his act. But his act, I think, has
also had the wider effect of protecting, I think, community cohesion,
(13:01):
you know, reminding us of the fact that that most
people are most people are good.
S1 (13:08):
That's it. And I think so much illustrating that and
something that absolutely has just, you know, made my heart
swell is the lifeguards who sprang into action on Sunday.
I mean, this is just the best of us, isn't it?
I think many of those who are listening were probably gobsmacked,
as I was to see that incredible photo of the lifeguard,
Jackson Doolin, who sprinted barefoot from Tamarama to deliver medical
(13:32):
supplies to Bondi. So maybe tell us what you know
about him and others like him too, that have sort of,
you know, have now come out that they've got incredible
stories of bravery.
S3 (13:41):
So the lifeguards and lifesavers at Bondi really swung into action.
When I was down there on Sunday night, I watched
them hosing down their surfboards, which had been covered in blood.
They had been using those surfboards as kind of makeshift
stretchers before the ambulances got there. We saw that picture
of one of the lifeguards bolting to get medical supplies
(14:02):
to bring down to the kind of site of the attack.
You know, we've heard stories of lifeguards running in to
save people from drowning as the attack is happening.
S15 (14:12):
Michael Jenkinson and Mario Marfella were on duty and as
bullets are still being fired, they went into the area
where people were on the ground bleeding and started forming, um,
you know, first aid resuscitations. Absolutely incredible. And Rory was
on the shore and performed a rescue in the middle
of it all. While while this was happening.
S3 (14:33):
And there's also one story about some poor woman who was,
you know, went into labour at the time, who was
helped by the lifesavers and also the lifesavers, you know,
took a lot of the children from the children's playground
at the time, which was adjacent to the festival site,
into the surf club. When I was there, they were
(14:54):
escorting a lot of elderly people into the surf club
in particular. It sort of became it had also been
the surf club was a kind of refuge during the shooting.
So a lot of people went there and by all
accounts it was, you know, terrifying. But all these children
were sort of in there had lost their parents and
and so it was in another case too, I heard
(15:17):
of a couple of kids whose mother had been shot,
and the lifesavers came and just grabbed those kids and
took them inside the Surf Lifesaving Club. Their first thought
was for the children. I think that shows a lot
about the Bondi community, that that they're there for each other.
S1 (15:37):
So I guess how do you reflect on these stories?
You know that all those people who did run towards
danger and did place themselves in harm's way for for
perfect strangers, for others? I don't know. Does it make
you feel any differently about the city that you're from
that you've grown up in?
S3 (15:53):
I was incredibly moved by the stories. I was moved
by the bravery. I was moved by the sort of
loving nature of not only the Jewish community in Bondi,
but the whole Bondi community and, you know, I think
(16:17):
like the rest of us, for me and for all
our reporters and I probably speak on behalf of a
lot of the reporters in the Sydney Morning Herald and
The Age newsrooms, we're all probably take a little while
for us to process what we've seen, because none of
us have really seen this. You know, there's a few
people who worked on the Port Arthur massacre, but, you know,
(16:38):
we have a young newsroom and it's you know, we're
sort of also, I think, checking on each other a lot. And, um,
I thank all our reporters for doing such a wonderful
job of doing that. So our reporters are there to
tell the story of these people who have had the
hardest days of their lives, and they have shown incredible bravery,
(16:59):
not only, you know, in the actions that they took
at the time, but in telling us their stories afterwards.
So I want to thank them as well. I want
to thank everyone for their time and for their bravery
and for their generosity.
S1 (17:12):
Well, it's been just great to speak to you about this, uh,
these stories that have emerged. So thank you so much, Jordan,
for your time.
S2 (17:20):
Thanks, Sam.
S1 (17:30):
Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Julia Carcasole.
Our executive producer is Tami Mills. Tom Mackendrick is our
head of audio. To listen to our episodes as soon
as they drop, follow the Morning Edition on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our newsrooms are powered
by subscriptions, so to support independent journalism, visit the page
(17:52):
or smh.com.au. Subscribe. And to stay up to date, sign
up to our Morning Edition newsletter to receive a summary
of the day's most important news in your inbox every morning.
Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger. Morris,
thanks for listening.
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