'Going To Eat Now': What 'Good Boy' Naveed Akram Told Mother Before Killing 16 In Sydney Shootout

Last Updated:December 15, 2025, 10:43 IST

Verena said the family had believed her son and his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who had told them they were heading for a fishing trip along Australia’s South Coast

Naveed Akram, identified as one of the attackers, had been employed as a bricklayer but lost his job several months ago after his employer went into liquidation. (X)

“I went scuba diving. We’re going… to eat now"—The seemingly regular conversation between a 24-year-old and his mother on an ordinary day is now a haunting reminder of a man led astray and at the center of the deadly mass shooting that shattered a peaceful Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.

Late on Sunday morning, Naveed Akram, who would later be identified by police as one of the shooters in the attack that has killed 16 so far, called his mother Verena. Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Verena recalled what he said: “Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving. We’re going… to eat now, and we’re going to stay home now because it’s very hot."

Verena said the family had believed her son and his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who had told them they were heading for a fishing trip along Australia’s South Coast—a plan that seemed innocuous at the time. While Sajid was shot dead after he opened fire, Naveed was arrested and remains under guard in hospital with serious injuries.

In the aftermath of the attack—now dubbed Australia’s worst mass shooting for almost 30 years—Verena struggled to reconcile her son’s actions with her view of him as a “good boy". “He doesn’t even go out. He doesn’t mix with friends. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t go to bad places … he goes to work, he comes home, he goes to exercise, and that’s it," she said. “Anyone would wish to have a son like my son … he’s a good boy," she said, insisting she did not think he was capable of such violence or involvement in extremism.

She also maintained that Naveed did not own a firearm, expressing disbelief that her son could have participated in such a deadly assault.

Naveed had been employed as a bricklayer but lost his job several months ago after his employer went into liquidation. His father, Sajid, ran a small fruit shop. The family—Verena, Naveed, his 20-year-old brother and 22-year-old sister—were living together in a home in western Sydney that they purchased last year.

The shooting erupted late Sunday afternoon during a Hanukkah festival event near Bondi Beach, where hundreds had gathered for a community celebration. Eyewitness accounts and official statements confirm that the father-and-son pair opened fire on the crowd. Police described the incident as a terrorist attack aimed at Sydney’s Jewish community.

Hours after the shooting, police found a homemade bomb in a car parked close to the beach. They said the “improvised explosive device" had likely been planted by the pair.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday called the shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach “an act of pure evil" and said that the country was mourning its dead by flying national flags at half mast.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of “pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism" in the months leading up to the shooting.

A string of antisemitic attacks has spread fear among Jewish communities in Australia following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

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