A man stops his car and takes a picture of a low brick house with his mobile phone before driving on. It is the house where the men who carried out the Bondi Beach shooting lived, in the Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg.
The father and son suspected of the terrorist attack have been identified by media as Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24. They killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration on the famous beach early Sunday evening, local time. More than 20 people are still being treated in hospital, and the father, Sajid Akram, was killed in connection with the attack.
Ricky Marco waits outside a garage in Bonnyrigg to pick up his car. He lived just a short drive from the Akram family's house.
"You've driven past, but you don't know what's going on in people's homes. It's someone's neighbor. How scary is that for the neighbor? It's scary for us who live three minutes away," he says.
“So close to home”
Bonnyrigg resident Lee McMillan, however, is not surprised that she lives near the shooters.
"Unfortunately, it's nothing new to us that they live here. There's been so much crime and shootings in recent months," she says.
Just a short distance away from where father and son Akram lived lives Cisco Winterstein.
You have to live somewhere, but you don't know who your neighbors are, he says.
It's so close to home. The kids walk back and forth to school, so it's worrying.
Luis Otormin and Carmen Otormin were at home watching TV on Sunday when they heard the police, who had conducted both a raid and a search of a house in Bonnyrigg.
"We heard the police, the cars. It's something I don't want to remember. I still can't get over it," says Luis.
We have lived here for over 50 years, and it is a “boring” country. Nothing ever happens here. So it is very shocking.
Want to see gun laws changed
Jelena Kantar and her godmother emerge from a local grocery store after shopping together. They both live nearby, and Jelena is being extra cautious after the shooting. On Monday, she had planned to go to a beach – which wasn’t Bondi Beach – with her friends, but changed her mind out of concern that something similar might happen to her.
She thinks gun laws should be reviewed after the incident.
If someone is interested in guns, maybe they can have them at the shooting ranges. They can rent them, but don't take them home. Just for everyone's safety. There are families, children, we don't need problems.
