Australians have lauded a man who was filmed wrestling a gun from an attacker during the country's worst mass shooting in years. Local media identified him as Ahmed al Ahmed, but baseless posts that spread widely on social media insisted his name was Edward Crabtree. The false claim originated on a sham news website that was only registered on the day of the attack that killed 15 people.
"It is Edward Crabtree, not the muslim who disarmed the muslim terrorist," reads part of a Facebook post shared December 15, 2025.
The accompanying screenshot apparently shows a report from a website called "The Daily", with a headline that says: "'I Just Acted': Bondi Local Edward Crabtree Disarms Gunman in Terrifying Attack".
The article says Crabtree is a "43-year-old IT professional" who "grew up in Marrickville in Sydney's inner west".
A father and son duo opened fire on people thronging the famous Sydney beach for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on December 14, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more (archived link).
Police shot and killed 50-year-old Sajid Akram while Naveed Akram, 24, was also shot and remained in hospital under police guard.
Authorities said the attack was designed to sow panic among the nation's Jews.
Footage that emerged on social media depicted a man risking his own life by grabbing one of the gunmen as he fired on people who were out of view of the recording (archived link).
The man then wrestles the gun out of the attacker's hand, before pointing the...
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