Australian police on Monday said that Naveed Akram, accused of killing 15 people in the Bondi Beach attack, conducted firearms training with his father, Sajid Akram, in a New South Wales area outside Sydney prior to the massacre.
Police documents released after Akram’s video court appearance from a Sydney hospital, where he is being treated for an abdominal injury, showed the pair had recorded footage justifying the meticulously planned attack. Officers shot Naveed Akram at the scene of the Dec. 14 attack and killed his 50-year-old father.
The 24-year-old suspect was transferred from hospital to prison on Monday, though authorities did not disclose the facilities.
According to the documents, the father-son duo began their assault by throwing four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) toward a crowd celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, but none detonated. Police described the devices as three aluminum pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb containing explosives, gunpowder, and steel ball bearings, calling them “viable” IEDs.
Before the attack, the pair rented a room in Sydney’s Campsie suburb for three weeks. CCTV footage showed them leaving at 2:16 a.m. with two shotguns, a rifle, five IEDs, and two homemade Islamic State flags wrapped in blankets. Police also released images of the attackers shooting from a footbridge, which provided an elevated position and partial cover behind concrete walls.
The largest IED was later found in the trunk of Naveed Akram’s car, draped with the flags.
Authorities have charged Akram with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder, and one count of committing a terrorist act. The attack, targeting the Jewish community during Hanukkah, is Australia’s deadliest mass shooting since 1996.
In response, the New South Wales government on Monday introduced draft laws that Premier Chris Minns said would be the toughest in Australia. The new rules would require Australian citizenship to qualify for a firearms license, which would have excluded Sajid Akram, an Indian citizen and permanent resident. New limits for recreational shooters would restrict ownership to a maximum of four guns, down from six, which Sajid Akram legally possessed.
Police said videos recovered from Naveed Akram’s phone show him and his father expressing extremist political and religious views, condemning Zionists, and following an ideology linked to Islamic State. Footage from October also shows them conducting tactical firearms training in open grassland.
Authorities allege the father and son meticulously planned the attack for several months.
The Bondi beachfront returned to normal activity on Monday after an impromptu memorial near Bondi Pavilion was removed, while the Sydney Jewish Museum will preserve part of it. Funerals continued, including that of 27-year-old French national Dan Elkayam, one of the victims. Twelve wounded people remain hospitalized.