Who is shooter Naveed Akram? Mother reveals details

Two alleged gunmen who killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach were a father and son, police said on Monday, 

According to the Australian media reports, Naveed was apprehended at the shooting and taken to the hospital, where he remains under police guard in a critical but stable condition. His father Sajid, who was reported to have owned a fruit shop, died at the scene.

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed Sajid arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998, which was converted to a partner visa in 2001, and that he has since held a resident return visa. Burke also said Sajid’s son, Naveed, is an Australian citizen born in 2001.

According to reports, the pair had told family they were going on a South Coast fishing trip, with Naveed’s mother, Verena, saying he had gone to Jervis Bay with his father for the weekend and last spoke to the family on Sunday morning.

Verena was reported to have said her son was an unemployed bricklayer who had been laid off about two months earlier when the company he worked for became insolvent. She was also reported to have said he had many friends during his high school days at Cabramatta High School, but was not particularly social and did not appear to spend much time online.

The report said Naveed appeared to be tagged in a 2022 social media post showing he had passed Holy Quran studies at the Al-Murad Institute in Heckenberg, a post it said has since been removed.

Verena was unable to identify Akram from a photo from the scene of the shooting, but said she did not believe her son could be involved in violent or extremist activity, saying: “He doesn’t have a firearm.”

A man pictured in the 2022 image, whom the report said it chose not to identify, was quoted as saying he had lost contact with Naveed in early 2022 and was devastated by images of the victims, adding that he and his family had been forced to leave their home after receiving death threats.

The report said Verena is a stay-at-home parent caring for her elderly mother nearby, and that Naveed lived at the family home in Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s west with his parents, a younger sister, 22, and a brother, 20.

Police were reported to be on scene at the Bonnyrigg home, with members of the public prevented from entering the area. The report said the three-bedroom property was bought in 2024, and that the family previously lived in Cabramatta.