Bondi Beach Shooting: Second bystander seen in al-Ahmed’s video threw bricks at gunman before being shot dead
Morrison, who was born in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, when it was part of the USSR, came to Australia five decades ago at the age of 14 as a refugee fleeing antisemitic persecution.
Morrison, who was born in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, when it was part of the USSR, came to Australia five decades ago at the age of 14 as a refugee.
Reuven Morrison, a 62-year-old Jewish man, has been identified as one of the 15 people killed by the two gunmen at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday. Morrison was on Bondi Beach with his wife Leah, to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah at the Chabad, when he was shot dead by one of the gunmen.
According to Morrison’s daughter, Sheina Gutnick, her father threw bricks at the gunman.
Gutnick told CBS News that her father had “jumped up the second the shooting started”.
In the video, Morrison is seen rushing to the spot and flinging his arm at the gunman. (Photo: X/@JewsFightBack)
“He managed to throw bricks, he was screaming … and protecting his community, he was shot dead,” Gutnick said.
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“I believe after Ahmed managed to get the gun off the terrorist, my father had then gone to try and unjam the gun, to try and attempt shooting. He was screaming at the terrorist,” she said.
Morrison, who was born in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, when it was part of the USSR, came to Australia five decades ago at the age of 14, as a refugee fleeing antisemitic persecution. According to Gutnick, Bondi Beach was special for the family as her parents met there for the first time.
Gutnick said her father died fighting.
“If there was one way for him to go on this earth, it would be fighting a terrorist. There was no other way he would be taken from us. He went down fighting, protecting the people he loved most,” she said.
People gather around a tribute for shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Gutnick told The Sydney Morning Herald that she was at a Hanukkah celebration in Melbourne when she heard of the shooting.
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When she tried calling her father, the call went unanswered. But her mother, Leah, picked up at once, screaming that Reuven was “up and running”.
“Dad was running at the shooters,” Gutnick recalls. “Then Mum said he was down. He was down, and they were laying a sheet over him. I fell to the floor.”
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Morrison, who was born in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, when it was part of the USSR, came to Australia five decades ago at the age of 14 as a refugee. 
