Suspect in Bondi Beach Massacre Is Charged With Murder and Terrorism

The surviving suspect in the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney was charged Wednesday with murder, grievous bodily harm and terrorism, police said.

The shooting at a beachside Hanukkah celebration Sunday left 15 people dead, including a 10-year-old girl and a Holocaust survivor who was a grandfather of 11. Two gunmen, who the police said were father and son, were shot by officers; one died at the scene, and the other was taken to a hospital. Authorities said the men appeared to have been motivated by Islamic State-inspired antisemitism.

The younger suspect, 24, had been in a coma until Tuesday afternoon, according to Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for the state of New South Wales.

The police have not officially released the suspects’ names, but Australian news outlets have widely reported their identities as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed Akram.

The charges were announced as the first funerals for the victims of the shooting, Australia’s worst mass killing in three decades, began Wednesday.

Throngs of grieving mourners gathered for the funeral of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of the main organizers of the beachside event that became a scene of carnage after two gunmen opened fire with multiple long guns.

Two other funerals were expected to take place Wednesday afternoon for other members of Bondi’s tight-knit Jewish community.

Dozens of other people were injured, 23 of whom remained hospitalized as of Wednesday. Two police officers responding to the shooting were among the wounded, including a 22-year-old probationary officer who was just four months into the job, and who lost vision in one eye from his injuries, according to the New South Wales police.

As streams of mourners continued to visit the site of the shooting Wednesday to pay their respects, some leveled harsh criticism at the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, accusing him of not doing enough in response to warnings that dangerous antisemitism was on the rise in the country.

Josh Frydenberg, a former treasurer with the conservative Liberal Party, said Albanese should take personal responsibility for the deaths.

“We as a Jewish community have been abandoned and left alone by our government,” he said.

Local officials said Wednesday that in addition to strengthening gun laws, they would take steps to bar mass protests in situations following a terrorist attack. The measure appeared to be aimed at restricting large rallies like one in August in which pro-Palestine demonstrators took over Sydney’s harbor bridge.

Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, said he was proposing legislation that would enable police to reject an application for a protest on the grounds that it would stretch resources.

“Protests right now in Sydney would be incredibly terrible for our community. In fact, that would rip apart our community, particularly protests about international events,” he said.