STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did an actual news site report an 43-year-old IT professional named "Edward Crabtree" disarmed a terrorist during a terrorist attack on Bondi beach in Australia on December 14, 2025? No, that's not true: That name and description came from on a website named "The Daily" that only appeared on the internet the same day the attack took place. Actual news websites have named "Ahmed al Ahmed" as the hero who took down one of the gunmen in the attack.
The tale about the IT professional appeared in an an article (archived here) published by a website named "The Daily" on December 14, 2025 under a headline that read: "'I Just Acted': Bondi Hero Edward Crabtree Disarms Terrorist - The Daily" which opened:
A 43-year-old IT professional is being hailed as a national hero after rushing a terrorist and wrestling away his weapon during a mass shooting at Bondi Beach, an act of bravery that witnesses say saved dozens of lives.
The Bondi Beach promenade where Edward Crabtree confronted the armed attacker on Saturday afternoon. Credit: The Daily
When Edward Crabtree left his Bondi apartment on Saturday afternoon for his usual weekend walk along the beachfront, he had no idea he would soon be facing down an armed terrorist. Within minutes, the 43-year-old IT professional would make a split-second decision that authorities say prevented what could have been one of Australia's deadliest attacks.
This is what the website looked like:
(Source: screenshot by thedailyaus.world taken by Lead Stories.)
According to whois.com domain name registration data (archived here) the domain name for the website thedailyaus.world was anonymously registered only on December 14, 2025, the same day as the attack. The first page archived by the Internet Archive for that website
Another sign the site is bogus is the fact that every time the page is reloaded the thumbnail images for the stories in the sidebar randomly change (and the images don't even appear to be related to the headlines):
(Image source: composite screenshot of the "Related Stories" block after reloading the page five times.)
According to reporting from the BBC (archived here) the man who was seen wrestling the gun out of the hands of one of the shooters was named as Ahmed al Ahmed:
A "hero" bystander who was filmed wrestling a gun from one of the Bondi Beach attackers has been named as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed.
Video verified by the BBC showed Mr Ahmed run at the gunman and seize his weapon, before turning the gun round on him, forcing his retreat.
Mr Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, remains in hospital, where he has undergone surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family told 7News Australia.
The same name was reported by Time, The New York Post, Fox News and The Jerusalem Post, among others.
A search for the name "Edward Crabtree" in combination with "Bondi" on Google News (archived here) only brought up fact checks, stories mentioning Ahmed al Ahmed and one story from The Verge (archived here) saying Grok, the AI bot on X, was falsely naming "Edward Crabtree" as the person in the viral video of the disarming.
Updates:
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2025-12-14T22:11:49Z 2025-12-14T22:11:49Z Added info about the "Related Stories" block on the bogus site.
