What was claimed
The man who tackled one of the suspected gunmen in a recent shooting at Bondi Beach is called Edward Crabtree.
Our verdict
This is false. The man filmed tackling one of the alleged attackers has been publicly named by officials as Ahmed al Ahmed.
A man who tackled one of the suspected Bondi Beach gunmen has been misidentified in posts being shared on social media.
Posts on Facebook and X have claimed the man in question is called Edward Crabtree. But this isn’t correct—his name is actually Ahmed al Ahmed.
At least fifteen people were killed in the attack at an event marking the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on the beach in Sydney on Sunday, 14 December, with a further 27 people hospitalised. One of the two suspected gunmen, who police have said were a father and son, was also killed.
Video footage filmed by an eyewitness shows a man in a white t-shirt running at a person holding a gun and wrestling with him before managing to seize the weapon and force his retreat.
Since the attack, misleading posts have been circulating on social media falsely claiming that the bystander in the video was actually called ‘Edward Crabtree’. One such post on X has been reposted over 2,000 times.
But the identity of the man who intervened, who has been widely hailed as a hero, has been confirmed as Ahmed al Ahmed, reportedly an Australian citizen of Syrian origin. He was shot several times in the struggle to disarm the suspected gunman, and continues to be treated in hospital where he was visited by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns.
Some of the posts sharing the false claim include screenshots taken from a website called ‘The Daily’, which is styled as a news website, but appears unconnected to a genuine Australian news site called The Daily Aus. An article on the website claims ‘Edward Crabtree’ is a 43-year-old IT professional who was born and raised in Australia.
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However, this website was only registered as a domain on 14 December, with the registrant listed as being in Reykjavik, Iceland. We’ve not found any credible media reports that a man named Edward Crabtree was actually involved in disarming the attackers.
We often see misinformation, such as people being misidentified, spread widely during or in the immediate aftermath of crisis events such as terror attacks. Before sharing content which you see on social media, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. Our toolkit can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the man who tackled one of the suspected gunmen on Bondi Beach is named Ahmed al Ahmed, not Edward Crabtree.
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Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.