NEED TO KNOW
- On December 14, 2025, two gunmen opened fire at Bondi Beach in a fatal shooting.
- Jewish Hanukkah celebrations were targeted in the terror attack, police confirmed.
- Ten-year-old Matilda was the youngest victim of the shooting.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14.
For Bondi lifeguard Michael Jenkinson, the memories of December 14, 2025, remain painfully sharp.
The 43-year-old has spent nearly two decades patrolling Australia’s iconic beach, and was the first medically trained responder to reach the scene when gunfire erupted at a Hanukkah celebration in Archer Park.
Now, speaking for the first time about the tragedy, he says it is the courage of the victims that he can’t forget.
The youngest of them was 10-year-old Matilda.
“She didn’t have colour, she was struggling … but she got her colour back, started responding and just hung in there. Super tough little girl,” Michael told The Daily Telegraph.
Those who knew Matilda say she was spirited and determined, qualities that shone through even in her final moments.
When the first shots rang out, Michael told his colleagues to get inside the lifeguard tower. He then jumped into a buggy and drove towards the gunfire. Aware that a crowd of around 500 people had gathered for the first night of Hanukkah, he knew help was needed.
Racing across the sand, Michael reached a chaotic scene. He treated a man in cardiac arrest, as well as a teen who’d been shot while shielding children, and Constable Scott Dyson, who had been hit twice. Despite this, the police officer urged Michael to focus on others.
“I just remember thinking, ‘How tough is this bloke?’ Not wincing, nothing. Calm as. I got so motivated by that,” Michael told the publication.
Michael also encountered Ahmed al Ahmed, who had wrestled a gun from one of the attackers. Although he didn’t treat Ahmed directly, Michael remembers the father of two remaining in good spirits despite multiple gunshot wounds.
“What really unsettled me was not knowing how many gunmen there were,” Michael says. “That’s confronting because you’ve got to start making decisions.”
He remembers seeing one of the shooters on the bridge and thinking he was safely hidden.
“But when they took the crime scene down and I went up on the bridge, you can see straight down,” he added. “There’s no cover. There’s trees. I went a bit blank there.”
As more lifeguards and paramedics arrived, Michael kept moving from patient to patient, relying on trauma training originally designed for battlefield injuries but adapted for shark bites. He recalls, “Everyone just started screaming at me – maybe 10 different people and families.”
Police later confirmed the attackers were a father and son. The father died at the scene, while his son, Naveed Akram, was arrested and faces charges including murder and committing a terrorist act.
Daniel McLaughlin, the Bondi lifeguard coordinator, believes Michael’s actions were pivotal, saying, “His bravery to go and do that and tell everyone who could help what they needed to do made me so proud.”
Michael returned to work on January 14, a full month after the attack.
He says it had taken that long to “calm down”, but being back with his fellow lifeguards helped him feel anchored again, as “we’re more like a high-school football team. When I get back in that environment, I feel better.”
