“We are going to eat now.” These were the words Naveed Akram spoke to his mother shortly before he and his father allegedly went on to take the lives of unsuspecting victims. Naveed’s mother has described the conversation she had with her “good boy” son just hours before he allegedly opened fire at Bondi Beach.Verena, the mother of one of the alleged shooters, Naveed Akram, said she had a normal conversation with her son on Sunday morning. “He rings me up and says, Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving,” she said. She added that he told her he was going to eat and would remain at the hotel afterwards.”We’re going to eat now, and then this morning, and we’re going to stay home now because it’s very hot,” Akram had told his mother.As Verena recounted her son’s behaviour, she said it was difficult for her to believe that he could be involved in a violent or extremist act and maintained that he was an innocent person. She said she did not recognise her son in the images shown publicly.”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. “Anyone would wish to have a son like my son. He’s a good boy.”Verena said her son enjoyed fishing, swimming, scuba diving and exercising, and that he had been laid off two months ago after his construction employer became insolvent.Naveed Akram had previously completed Koran studies at the Al-Murad Institute in Heckenberg, Sydney. He lived with his parents, a younger sister and a brother in a three-bedroom home purchased in 2024. Police remain at the family’s Bonnyrigg home in western Sydney to restrict public access as investigations into the Bondi Beach attack continue.
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