Melbourne, Australia — Australian police documents published on Monday showed that the man accused of killing 15 people on Bondi Beach in Sydney conducted firearms training in an area of New South Wales state outside Sydney with his father.
The documents, released after Naveed Akram appeared in court by video from a Sydney hospital where he was being treated for an abdominal injury, said the two men recorded footage justifying the meticulously planned attack.
Officers wounded Akram at the scene of the December 14 shooting and killed his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram.
The state government confirmed that Naveed Akram was transferred from hospital to prison on Monday. Authorities have not identified either facility.
The documents said the 24-year-old and his father began their attack by throwing four explosive devices at a crowd celebrating an annual Jewish event on Bondi Beach, but the devices did not explode.
Police described the devices as three aluminum pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb containing explosive material, gunpowder and steel ball bearings. None of them exploded, but police described them as “potential” explosive devices.
The couple rented a room in the Sydney suburb of Campsie for three weeks before leaving at 2:16am on the day of the attack. Surveillance cameras recorded them carrying what police claimed were two rifles, a shotgun, five explosive devices and two homemade ISIS flags wrapped in blankets.
Police also released photos of gunmen firing from a footbridge, providing them with an elevated vantage point and the protection of waist-high concrete walls.
The largest explosive device was found after a gun battle near the pedestrian bridge in the trunk of the son’s car, which was left wrapped in flags.
Authorities charged Akram with 59 crimes, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to kill in relation to injured survivors, and one count of committing a terrorist act.
The anti-Semitic attack at the start of the eight-day Hanukkah celebration was the worst mass shooting in Australia since a gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania in 1996.
The NSW government introduced bills to parliament on Monday that Premier Chris Minns said would become the toughest in Australia.
The new restrictions will include making Australian citizenship a requirement to qualify for a firearms licence. This would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen on a permanent resident visa.
Sajid Akram also legally owned six rifles and rifles. The new legal limit for recreational shooters will be a maximum of four guns.
Police said a video clip found on Naveed Akram’s phone shows him and his father expressing their “political and religious views and appears to summarize their justification for the Bundy terrorist attack.”
Police said the men were seen in the video “condemning the actions of Zionists” while also “adhering to a religiously motivated ideology linked to ISIS.”
Police said a video filmed in October showed them “shooting and moving tactically” on grassland surrounded by trees.
The police claim that “there is evidence that the accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for several months.”
An improvised memorial that grew near Bondi Pavilion after the massacre, with thousands of mourners bringing flowers and heartfelt cards, was removed on Monday as the seaside returned to normal activity. The Jewish Museum of Sydney will retain part of the memorial.
Funerals for the victims continued on Monday, with a memorial service for French citizen Dan El Kayam being held in the nearby suburb of Woollahra, the heart of Jewish life in Sydney. The 27-year-old moved from Paris to Sydney a year ago.
The Ministry of Health said 12 people injured in the attack were still in hospitals on Monday.
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