Mother of Sydney shooter: Anyone would wish to have son like mine, he's a good boy

16-Dec-2025

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One of the gunmen involved in the deadly shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach spoke to his mother just hours before the attack, telling her he had gone for a swim and was heading out to eat, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Speaking to the news outlet as police surrounded her home in Bonnyrigg in Sydney's west, Verena said her son, Naveed Akram, last called her in the morning of Dec 14. At the time, he was on a weekend trip to Jervis Bay with his father, Sajid Akram.

"He rings me up [on Dec 14] and said, Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving. We're going ... to eat now, and then this morning, and we're going to stay home now because it's very hot," she recalled.

Verena said she was unable to recognise her son from photographs taken at the crime scene and insisted she could not believe he was involved in violence.

"He doesn't have a firearm. He doesn't even go out. He doesn't mix around with friends. He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't go to bad places. He goes to work, he comes home, he goes to exercise and that's it," she said.

Verena also added that Naveed had been unemployed for about two months after losing his bricklaying job when the company he worked for became insolvent and had been actively looking for work. "Anyone would wish to have a son like my son. He's a good boy," she said.