Accused gunman in Bondi Beach shooting charged with 15 counts of murder
[December 17, 2025]
By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY, KRISTEN GELINEAU AND ROD
McGUIRK
SYDNEY (AP) — An accused gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre was
charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder on Wednesday, as
hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to begin funerals for the
victims.
Two shooters slaughtered 15 people on Sunday in an antisemitic mass
shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, and more
than 20 other people are still being treated in hospitals. All of those
killed by the gunmen who have been identified so far were Jewish.
As investigations unfold, Australia faces a social and political
reckoning about antisemitism, gun control and whether police protections
for Jews at events such as Sunday’s were sufficient for the threats they
faced.
Accused shooter charged in hospital
Naveed Akram, the 24-year-old alleged shooter, was charged on Wednesday
after waking from a coma in a Sydney hospital, where he has been since
police shot him and his father at Bondi. His father Sajid Akram, 50,
died at the scene.
The charges include one count of murder for each fatality and one count
of committing a terrorist act, police said.
Akram was also charged with 40 counts of causing harm with intent to
murder in relation to the wounded and with placing an explosive near a
building with intent to cause harm.
Police said the Akrams' car, which was found at the crime scene,
contained improvised explosive devices.
Akram's lawyer did not enter pleas and did not request his client's
release on bail during a video court appearance from his hospital bed, a
court statement said.
Akram is being represented by Legal Aid NSW, which has a policy of
refusing media comment on behalf of clients. He is expected to remain
under police guard in hospital until he is well enough to be transferred
to a prison.
A father of 5 who ministered in prisons is buried
Families from Sydney's close-knit Jewish community gathered, one after
another, to begin to bury their dead. The victims of the attack ranged
in age from a 10-year-old girl to an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Jews are usually buried within 24 hours from their deaths, but funerals
have been delayed by coroner’s investigations.
The first farewelled was Eli Schlanger, 41, a husband and father of five
who served as the assistant rabbi at Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi and
organized Sunday's Chanukah by the Sea event where the attack unfolded.
The London-born Schlanger also served as chaplain in prisons across New
South Wales state and in a Sydney hospital.
“After what happened, my biggest regret was — apart from, obviously, the
obvious – I could have done more to tell Eli more often how much we love
him, how much I love him, how much we appreciate everything that he does
and how proud we are of him,” said Schlanger's father-in-law, Rabbi
Yehoram Ulman, who sometimes spoke through tears.
“I hope he knew that. I’m sure he knew it,” Ulman said. "But I think it
should've been said more often.”
One mourner, Dmitry Chlafma, said as he left the service that Schlanger
was his longtime rabbi.
“You can tell by the amount of people that are here how much he meant to
the community,” Chlafma said. “He was warm, happy, generous, one of a
kind.”
Outside the funeral, not far from the site of the attack, the mood was
hushed and grim, with a heavy police presence.
Authorities are probing a suspected connection to the Islamic State
group
Authorities believe that the shooting was “a terrorist attack inspired
by Islamic State,” Australia's federal police commissioner Krissy
Barrett said Wednesday.
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A photo of shooting victim Matilda, a 10-year-old whose last name
has been withheld at the request of her family, is placed amongst
flowers at a memorial made at the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney, Dec. 17,
2025, following Sunday's shooting. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)
The Islamic State group is a scattered and considerably weaker group
since a 2019 U.S.-led military intervention drove it out of
territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, but its cells remain
active and it has inspired a number of independent attacks including
in western countries.
Authorties are also examining a trip the suspects made to the
Philippines in November.
Groups of Muslim separatist militants, including Abu Sayyaf in the
southern Philippines, once expressed support for IS and have hosted
small numbers of foreign militants from Asia, the Middle East and
Europe in the past. Philippine military and police officials say
there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants in the
country’s south.
Leader pledges action on guns and antisemitism
The news that the suspects were apparently inspired by the Islamic
State group provoked more questions about whether Australia's
government had done enough to stem hate-fueled crimes, especially
directed at Jews. In Sydney and Melbourne, where 85% of Australia's
Jewish population lives, a wave of antisemitic attacks has been
recorded in the past year.
After Jewish leaders and survivors of Sunday's attack lambasted the
government for not heeding their warnings of violence, Prime
Minister Anthony Albanese vowed Wednesday to take whatever
government action was needed to stamp out antisemitism.
Albanese and the leaders of some Australian states have pledged to
tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the
most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port
Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since
been rare.
Albanese has announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in
part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed six weapons
legally. Proposed measures include restricting gun ownership to
Australian citizens and limiting the number of weapons a person can
hold.
Australians come together to grieve
Meanwhile, Australians seeking ways to make sense of the horror
settled on practical acts. Hours-long lines were reported at blood
donation sites and at dawn on Wednesday, hundreds of swimmers formed
a circle on the sand, where they held a minute's silence. Then they
ran into the sea.
Not far away, part of the beach remained behind police tape as the
investigation into the massacre continued, shoes and towels
abandoned as people fled still strewn across the sand.
One event that would return to Bondi was the Hanukkah celebration
the gunmen targeted, which has run for 31 years, Ulman said. It
would be in defiance of the attackers' wish to make people feel like
it was dangerous to live as Jews, he added.
“Eli lived and breathed this idea that we can never ever allow them
not only to succeed, but anytime that they try something we become
greater and stronger,” he said.
“We’re going to show the world that the Jewish people are
unbeatable."
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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington and McGuirk from Melbourne.
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