Boris and Sofia Gurman were a couple — he, a 69-year-old retiree; She, a 61-year-old Post Office employee, died on Sunday. Their identities became known this Tuesday, after a video recorded by a car’s dashboard camera was released, showing Boris Gurman struggling with one of the two men who committed the massacre. With these two retirees, they killed 15 people gathered on Bondi beach to celebrate the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Released on the same day as the attack, it showed another Australian, 43-year-old Muslim fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, disarming the older attacker, Sajid Akram, 50, who was later shot dead by police. , survived the attack and is recovering from his injuries at St George’s Hospital in Sydney.
The images that were known this Tuesday are not very clear and last only the seconds that the car in which the camera is installed takes to pass by. The video shows the beginning of the shooting, after the two alleged perpetrators, Sajid Akram and his son, Naveem Akram, 24, emerged with rifles in their hands from a gray Hyunday Elantra, parked on the bridge from which they later began shooting and which gives access to the popular beach. The vehicle has a rudimentary Islamic State flag on the windshield (black with white Arabic letters).
At that moment, an older man, dressed in a lavender polo shirt – the passer-by identified this Tuesday by his family as Boris Gurman – is seen struggling with the eldest of the Akrams, dressed in white pants.
They both fall to the ground on the road, behind the parked vehicle, but the retiree manages to snatch the rifle from the other man, gets up and appears to hit the alleged terrorist with the weapon. Meanwhile, his wife Sofía runs to the back of the car, in what seems like an attempt to help her husband. Other people meanwhile seek refuge in the shelter of a nearby bus stop.
Although the couple then appears in close-up and the images do not reflect how Boris and Sofia Gurman died, according to Australian media, Sajid Akram was carrying a second gun, with which he shot them. The driver of the car from which the images were recorded has told Reuters that the man “did not flee”, but rather “fought to the death to take the weapon away.” [al terrorista].
This driver claims to have later seen that “the old man was finally shot and collapsed.” Another witness who witnessed the events told the Australian network 9News: “He was a hero. He tried. It was right at the beginning, and he exposed himself to danger.”
According to him Sydney Morning HeraldBoris and Sofia Gurman, both Jews, were the first victims of the attack, the worst mass shooting in Australia since 1996.
In the statement addressed to that newspaper in which they confirmed the couple’s identity this Tuesday, their relatives assure that “although nothing can ease the pain of losing Boris and Sofía,” they feel “an overwhelming feeling of pride in their bravery and altruism.”
“We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman,” the note continues, noting that the couple was married for 34 years.
“Boris was a retired mechanic, known for his generosity, his quiet strength and his willingness to help anyone in need; Sofia worked at the Post Office and was much loved by her colleagues and the community,” the text recalls. They were, say those close to them, “the heart” of their family, whose absence “has left an immense void.”
The other people killed include a 10-year-old girl — the youngest victim — a British-born rabbi, a retired police officer and a Holocaust survivor. This Tuesday, 22 injured people remain hospitalized in Sydney, eight of them in serious condition, including two police officers who were shot while trying to stop the two assailants.
Also this Tuesday, the Australian police confirmed that the two alleged perpetrators of the massacre “were inspired” by the Islamic State. Both, father and son, had traveled on November 1 to the Philippines, where that terrorist organization is still active, as reported by the security body, which has claimed to have found in the car of the alleged perpetrators, in addition to rudimentary flags of the Islamic State, homemade explosive devices.
