Two people who were killed in the Bondi Beach attack have been captured on video trying to stop one of the gunmen moments before their deaths.
Dashcam footage taken from a passing car shows the pair confronting 50-year-old shooter Sajid Akram during the early moments of the attack.
The footage shows a man wearing a purple shirt sitting on the road just metres from the footbridge where the shooting took place. He is seen holding a firearm after ripping it from Akram. A woman is standing nearby.
A longer video of the attack shows Akram walking back towards the footbridge moments later and opening fire in the direction of the pair, suggesting he may have returned to retrieve the weapon.
Drone footage from later in the incident shows two bodies lying next to each other in the same location where the man in the purple shirt and the woman were seen earlier.
Local parents Monika and Tim Holtsbaum witnessed the moment as they were leaving Bondi Beach with their two young daughters on Sunday night.
“Shots were fired before this gentleman ran over and effectively tackled this guy [Akram] into the street to grab his rifle off him,” Tim told the Australian Financial Review.
Monika said the violence unfolded in front of their children.
“I saw the dad fall down… and then I jumped in the back of the car to shield my girls and to pull them down so they didn’t see anything,” she said.
The family said they drove away as more shots were fired.
“We didn’t have enough time to stand there and watch it from start to finish because we were in the car and we started to speed up once three or four shots had been fired,” Tim said.
Tim said the man’s actions stood out as an act of extraordinary bravery.
“For him to be brave enough to run over to a man with a rifle after shots had been fired to try and take his gun from him was pretty amazing,” he said.
“Very confronting to see the footage back, to see him having his life taken, which is just the ultimate kind of sacrifice.”
“His family needs to know he was a hero,” Monika said.
Vision from the scene also shows, for the first time, an Islamic State flag draped over the front windscreen of a car parked near the bridge.
The actions of the two victims have also been widely discussed on social media.
“Many people may not know that at the very beginning of the incident, two individuals were among the first to identify the gunman and bravely attempted to disarm him,” one user wrote.
“Tragically, they were shot and killed in the process.
“They were heroes too. They stepped forward in the face of extreme danger.”
Another passerby described the man as a hero after witnessing the struggle.
“We saw this man heroically try to disarm this evil terrorist. His family needs to know he (was) trying to save lives. He is a hero,” they wrote.
The two victims have not yet been publicly named.
Nine of the 15 victims of the Bondi Beach attack have now been identified, including the youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda.
Image: news.com.au
