MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Police in an Australian state are developing a heavily armed quick-response unit following a deadly December shooting that claimed 15 lives and injured three officers who carried only handguns during a Sydney Hanukkah event, officials revealed during a government investigation Wednesday.
During testimony at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which is examining antisemitism’s growth in Australia before the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach incident, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson outlined a significant weapons disparity.
The department has responded by creating plans for an Armed Response Command, outfitted with semiautomatic rifles, while also restarting a priority operation targeting antisemitic incidents and retaliatory attacks on Muslim communities, Hudson testified.
Previously, rifles in the department were mainly limited to two specialized paramilitary units, he explained.
Two men, identified as father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram, allegedly used two shotguns and a hunting rifle to fire upon hundreds of Hanukkah celebrants in a beachside park. Just four officers were on scene, carrying Glock pistols that work effectively only at close range.
“On Dec. 14, our police officers were placed at significant risk being in a gunfight armed with 9 mm Glocks against long arms,” Hudson stated to the commission.
Eleven officers arrived within five minutes of the alleged shooting by the Akrams. Three of those responding officers were among the many people injured in the attack. Officers fatally shot the father and captured the wounded son in under eight minutes from the initial gunfire, Monday’s hearing revealed.
Following the incident, police also reactivated Operation Shelter, which had been created to address rising community tensions following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Hudson noted.
Hudson had created Operation Shelter as a “high visibility” proactive police initiative to prevent street violence escalation in Sydney. During its busiest period, 200 officers were deployed daily to the operation, which could pull additional personnel from other assignments when needed.
Operation Shelter was functioning “in name only” during the Bondi attack, Hudson said Wednesday, noting that officials quickly restarted the program after the shooting and upgraded it to an “active policing resource” that will continue until the armed response unit becomes fully operational within the next 18 months to two years.
