The daughter of one of many victims of Sunday’s Bondi Seashore terror assault informed CBS Information on Monday that her father was “shot useless for being Jewish,” and he or she now believes Australia will not be a secure house for Jewish folks.
Sheina Gutnick stated that her father, Reuven Morrison, a 62-year-old Soviet-born member of the ultra-orthodox Jewish group in Australia, was killed whereas trying to cease one of many two gunmen throughout Sunday’s mass capturing, which Australian authorities have known as an antisemitic terror assault.
“From my sources and understanding, he had jumped up the second the capturing began. He managed to throw bricks on the terrorist,” Gutnick informed CBS Information in Bondi on Monday, referencing an try and cease one of many gunmen that was caught on digicam through the assault the day before today.
She stated it was her father seen attempting to cease one of many assailants after one other man, later recognized as 43-year-old fruit vendor Ahmed al Ahmed, confronted the suspect and wrestled a gun away from him.
“I consider after Ahmed managed to get the gun off the terrorist, my father had then gone to try to unjam the gun, to try to try capturing. He was screaming on the terrorist,” she stated. “My expensive father, Reuven Morrison was shot useless for being Jewish at a Hanukkah occasion on Bondi Seashore whereas defending lives, whereas leaping up, placing his personal life in danger to avoid wasting his fellow Jewish group members.”
Dramatic social media video verified by CBS Information Confirmed exhibits Morrison throwing objects at one of many suspected shooters after one other man, confirmed by Australian authorities as Ahmed, tackled and disarmed him.
Courtesy of Sheina Gutnick
Gutnick recalled the devastating second that she came upon her father had been killed within the assault.
“As my household was exiting a Hanukkah occasion in Melbourne we heard information from a pal that there was a capturing occurring in Sydney. I instantly felt the largest pit in my abdomen and tried calling my father who didn’t choose up the telephone. I then known as my mom and I heard screaming, shouting. She was screaming that there is an energetic shooter,” Gutnick stated. “I known as her again and he or she was yelling that he is working, he is working, after which that he has been shot. After just a few extra makes an attempt of hanging up and calling again, my mom was yelling for medical help, screaming for an ambulance, screaming for assist, asking for assist … she then suggested that he is getting oxygen and hung up the telephone.”
She stated she managed to get her mom again on the telephone, “and he or she was screaming that that they had stopped engaged on him and that he had been lined by a sheet. I hoped in her hysterical state that she was simply being delusional and that wasn’t the case.”
Gutnick stated that she believes Australia is not a secure nation for the Jewish group, and he or she blamed the nation’s authorities, accusing leaders of failing to handle a rising tide of antisemitism.
Australian police, “lay on the bottom within the grass overlaying their heads, untrained for this bloodbath, untrained for what’s to come back, untrained for what the Jewish group has been telling the Australian authorities is inevitable,” Gutnick stated, including her voice to a refrain of criticism after a documented rise in hate assaults geared toward Australia’s Jewish residents.
“Australia’s not a house for Jews anymore. It could possibly’t be. If we’re shot useless whereas celebrating our non secular competition of lights, of delight, of celebrating who we’re, and if we won’t do this, Australia will not be a home for us anymore. We will not be right here,” she added
Morrison had fled the Soviet Union to flee antisemitic persecution 5 many years in the past, Gutnick stated, and stated she was left with a way of “betrayal” as a result of method of her father’s dying.
“He got here to Australia as a result of he thought that this may be secure,” she stated. “That is the place he was going to have a household, the place he’s going to reside a life away from persecution.”
“And for a few years, he did do this — he lived a beautiful, free life — till Australia turned on him.”
“I really feel betrayed by the federal government. I really feel the indicators have been coming for an extended, very long time. The warning bells have been there, and the federal government sat doing nothing.”
“The Jewish group are hurting at present,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese informed reporters Monday at a memorial on Bondi Seashore. “At this time, all Australians wrap our arms round them and say, we stand with you. We’ll do no matter is critical to stamp out antisemitism. It’s a scourge, and we are going to eradicate it collectively.”
Flavio Brancaleone/REUTERS 
One of many suspects, a father and son, was killed on Sunday, and the youthful man — who was investigated in 2019 over suspected hyperlinks to extremism however deemed to not characterize a menace — remained hospitalized in a coma on Monday, Albanese stated.
“Individuals’s circumstances can change,” he informed reporters earlier than a cupboard assembly on Monday. “Individuals could be radicalized over a time period. [Gun] Licences shouldn’t be in perpetuity.”
“We’re very a lot working by way of the background of each individuals. At this stage, we all know little or no about them,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon stated Monday.
Gutnick stated that she would keep in mind her father as a hero who “went down combating.”
“He added a lot mild into the world. There was no human on Earth you would examine him to. If there was a method for him to go from this Earth, he can be combating a terrorist. There was no different method he would have been taken from us,” Gutnick stated.
