Australia began burying the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach on Wednesday, as authorities said they were gearing up to formally charge the surviving suspect in the attack that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration.
Throngs of grieving mourners gathered for the funeral of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of the main organizers of the beachside event that became a scene of carnage after two gunmen opened fire with multiple long guns.
Two other funerals were expected to take place Wednesday afternoon for other members of Bondi’s tight-knit Jewish community, which is reeling from the country’s deadliest mass shooting in three decades. The authorities said the gunmen had been motivated by Islamic State-inspired antisemitism.
The victims of the shooting included a 10-year-old girl and a Holocaust survivor with 11 grandchildren. Dozens of other people were injured, 23 of whom remain hospitalized as of Wednesday. Two police officers responding to the shooting were among the wounded, including a 22-year-old probationary officer who was just four months into the job, and who lost vision in one eye from his injuries, according to the New South Wales police.
One of the two suspects that officials have identified as being behind the killings was expected to be criminally charged as soon as Wednesday afternoon, having awoken from a coma a day earlier after being shot by police officers at the site of the massacre.
The police are waiting for the medical condition of the man, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, to improve enough for him to understand the proceedings to file charges, Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for the state of New South Wales, said.
A second gunman whom police have identified as his father, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed on Sunday.
As streams of mourners continued to visit the site of the shooting on Wednesday to pay their respects, some leveled harsh criticism at the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, accusing him of not doing enough in response to warnings that dangerous antisemitism was on the rise in the country.
Josh Frydenberg, a former treasurer with the conservative Liberal Party, said Mr. Albanese should take personal responsibility for the deaths.
“We as a Jewish community have been abandoned and left alone by our government,” he said.
Local officials said Wednesday that in addition to strengthening gun laws, they would take steps to bar mass protests in situations following a terrorist attack. The measure appeared to be aimed at restricting large rallies like one in August in which pro-Palestine demonstrators took over Sydney’s harbor bridge.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, said he was proposing legislation that would enable police to reject an application for a protest on the grounds that it would stretch resources.
“Protests right now in Sydney would be incredibly terrible for our community. In fact, that would rip apart our community, particularly protests about international events,” he said.
Victoria Kim is the Australia correspondent for The New York Times, based in Sydney, covering Australia, New Zealand and the broader Pacific region.
The post Australia Begins Burying Victims of Bondi Shooting appeared first on New York Times.
