Hero Couple Boris and Sofia Gurman Fought Bondi Terrorist at Start of Massacre, Dashcam Reveals

SYDNEY: New dashcam footage has surfaced, painting a harrowing picture of courage and sacrifice at the onset of the Bondi Beach terror attack, confirming that a Russian-Jewish couple, Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife Sofia Gurman, 61, were tragically killed attempting to disarm one of the attackers.

The couple, who were approaching their 35th wedding anniversary in January, are believed to have been the first two victims of the massacre that claimed 15 lives on Sunday night near the Chanukah by the Sea event.

A man wearing a purple top can be seen wrestling with Sajid Akram before the deadly shooting.

The Moment of Confrontation

The dashcam footage, filmed around 6:40 pm, captures Boris Gurman, wearing a purple top, wrestling with alleged shooter Sajid Akram, 50, near the attacker’s silver car. The footage clearly shows Gurman grabbing at the firearm, with both men falling to the ground. For a brief moment, Gurman appears to gain control of the weapon, attempting to hold Akram at bay while his wife, Sofia, stands nearby.

The vehicle used by the attackers, which was parked moments before the struggle, had what appeared to be an Islamic State flag visible across the front windscreen, a detail confirmed as consistent with the Prime Minister’s subsequent statement that the gunmen were “motivated by Islamic State ideology.”

An eyewitness, identified only as Jenny, whose dashcam captured the vision, described the sight of the struggle as sending a “chill down her spine.” She later saw the couple lying on the ground, holding each other. “The elderly man, instead of running, rushed towards the danger, fought desperately to grab the gun, and grappled with him fiercely,” she wrote on social media. “Such a civilian hero shouldn’t be forgotten!”

Boris and Sofia Gurman had been married for 34 years.

A Legacy of Selflessness

Family friend Andy Kanchik, writing on a GoFundMe page, described the loss as “sudden, senseless, and deeply painful.”

He said Boris and Sofia, who lived in Bondi and “loved their community,” embodied deep kindness and quiet strength. Their final act of bravery, Kanchik noted, reflected exactly who they were: “people who instinctively chose to help, even at great personal risk.”

The attack is Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996 and the deadliest anti-Semitic act in the nation’s history.